Standard Life UK Smaller Companies Trust (SLS) might seem like a misnomer. Of its top four holdings, two, NMC Health and JD Sports, have market capitalisations of more than £3 billion. The trust would suggest that as a long-term holder it took these stakes when the companies were far smaller and stuck with them rather than take profits.
In addition, about 80 per cent of the trust is invested in companies with a market value of less than £1.5 billion, which puts them among the bottom 10 per cent by value, and it has plenty of holdings in small caps such as Hotel Chocolat, one of last year’s more successful flotations, worth £300 million-odd, the software company Kainos and the retailer Joules, both in the