JPMorgan European Discovery Trust — Set to benefit from Europe’s reawakening

JPMorgan European Discovery Trust (JEDT) invests in European small-cap companies (excluding UK). Its objective is to identify and invest early in smaller companies demonstrating improving operational performance and strong growth prospects. In the year since their appointment, JEDT’s new managers, Jon Ingram, Jack Featherby and Jules Bloch, have made some portfolio changes to reduce exposure to potentially unfavourable geopolitical and macroeconomic shocks. These changes have seen performance improve markedly. As at 30 June 2025, the trust outpaced the market over one, three and five years, and was the top performer among its peers over the year. JEDT’s managers believe that Germany’s infrastructure investment plans, combined with a big boost to European defence spending, are likely to be ‘profoundly positive’ for European small caps over the long term. And with investors showing increasing appreciation of the value offered by European smaller caps, the managers are very optimistic about the outlook for the sector and their portfolio.