At its AGM today, shareholders in JPMorgan Global Core Real Assets (JARA) voted against a resolution for the fund to continue as an investment trust for another five years. This was not unexpected –  the trust’s performance has been disappointing since its launch five years ago, while sentiment towards the sorts of assets in which it has been focused has not helped. These, and perhaps JARA’s size (it has a market cap of c £150m), has meant that it has failed to get the attention of investors and grow as intended and found itself sitting on a discount of just over 20% prior to today’s vote.

This is in some respects unfortunate. JARA’s underlying multi-asset portfolio of infrastructure, transport and real estate assets has been more stable than the share price, but many of these assets have been weighed down by an environment of higher interest rates and the trust, which launched at 100p, was sitting on an NAV of 92.2p at the end of July 2024.

Following the continuation vote not passing, JARA’s board now has six months to bring forward “proposals for the reconstruction, reorganisation or winding-up of the Company” to shareholders for their approval. The board says that “these proposals may or may not involve winding-up the Company or liquidating all or part of the Company’s existing portfolio of investments”. However, the directors intend to consult with shareholders prior to presenting these proposals.