The Brunner Investment Trust (BUT) Overview

What is The Brunner Investment Trust?

Managed by Allianz Global Investors, with Julian Bishop and James Ashworth as co-lead portfolio managers. Brunner aims to grow both your capital and your income over the long term by investing in shares from around the world, with a sizeable chunk held in the UK. It is a genuine all-rounder, sometimes called an "all-weather" Trust, built to hold up across different market conditions rather than betting everything on one theme. It is also one of the oldest trusts around, tracing its roots to the Brunner family's stake in the business that became ICI back in the 1920s. Today it is best known as a "dividendA payment made by a company to its shareholders, typically representing a distribution of the company's profits. hero": it has raised its dividend every single year for 54 years running.

Why is it rated by Boring Money?

This is described as an “all weather Trust”, investing in a global collection of shares with the aim of both capital growth and income. The dividend yield is currently around 1.7%. The team finds some areas of the market such as AI “bewilderingly expensive” and think that this is more cyclical than many others do. Notably, they don’t own Nvidia, for example, and so this active trust will offer diversification.

The Trust avoids heavy bets on any one theme or sector, and owns more in the UK and Europe than many global equity Tusts. It holds more in financials and industrials than it does in information technology,

Holly MackayCEO and Founder, Boring Money

How has Brunner performed?

All data herein is sourced from FE fundinfo and is correct as at end August 2026. Boring Money is not responsible for any data discrepancies.

Why look at it now?

Two things stand out. First, Brunner trades at around a 10% discount to the value of its underlying investments, so you are effectively buying roughly a pound of assets for about 90p. Second, its 54-year record of rising dividends offers a growing income that very few investments can match, which matters when you want your money to keep pace with rising prices. The managers are currently wary of the priciest corners of the market, including some of the AI-related froth, and are leaning towards quality companies on sensible valuations.

What is the risk rating for Brunner Trust?

We rank this at 5/5 on our chilli scale for riskFor a guide on how spicy any trust is, we use FE fundinfo’s Risk Score and sort the trusts into one of our 5 chilli bands. Cash would be no chilli. A non-volatile smooth trust would be 1 or 2. The FTSE 100 would clock in as 4 chillies. Anything very volatile and spicy is a 5..

Brunner sits high on the risk scale. it is still fully invested in sharesA unit of ownership in a company. Companies divide their ownership into shares and investors can purchase these to become owners of a tiny part of it. They're also called 'stocks' or 'equities'., which can fall in value, it holds overseas companies so currency movements affect returns, and it uses a modest amount of borrowing (gearingThe act of borrowing money to fund a company's operations. It can be expressed as a ratio, where the cost of the borrowed amount is compared to the overall value of the company - this is called the gearing or leverage ratio. ) which can magnify both gains and losses. Spreading your money across regions, sectors and 63 companies helps smooth the ride, but this remains a long-term investment that will rise and fall with markets.

Where does Brunner invest?

Geography: North America 45.2% | UK 26.9% | Europe ex UK 16.7% | Pacific ex Japan 8.1% | Japan 3.2%

What sectors does Brunner invest in?

A balanced spread rather than one big bet, led by financials, industrials and technology.

What are the top holdings?

Brunner is far more spread out than a concentrated Trust: its biggest single holding is just 3.5%, and the top ten is a genuine global mix. You will recognise many of the names, from Microsoft, Alphabet and Visa to Shell and UK names like SSE and Melrose, alongside chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor and Asian insurer AI.

Source: The Brunner Investment Trust as at 31/08/2026

What are the key facts? 

Source: The Brunner Investment Trust as at 31/08/2026