This summary covers a monthly update for the Baillie Gifford China Growth fund. The fund rose 22% in the past year, beating the market average, but over five years it lost 27%—worse than its benchmark. The reason is that it concentrates money in a few high-growth firms, like ByteDance at around 14% of assets. That makes returns swing sharply. For ordinary investors, this means the fund is risky: a good recent year doesn't guarantee long-term results. It's worth reading because it shows why you should check both short- and long-term performance and how concentrated a fund is before investing.
Baillie Gifford China Growth Trust is an actively managed trust focused on Chinese companies, targeting long-term capital appreciation. It typically holds 40–80 stocks, with up to 20% of assets permitted in unlisted companies. As of 30 June 2026, total assets stood at £190.62m, with a share price of
For the 12 months ended June 30, 2026, the fund returned 25.5% in share price terms and 22.3% in NAV terms, outperforming the MSCI China All Shares benchmark (13.3%) by 9.0 percentage points; over five years, however, the cumulative NAV return was -26.8%, lagging the benchmark by 12.3 percentage points — a striking contrast between short- and long-term performance.
| Metric | 1 Year | 3 Years | 5 Years | 10 Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fund (Share Price) | 25.5% | 44.4% | -36.2% | 39.3% |
| Fund (NAV) | 22.3% | 38.5% | -26.8% | 26.5% |
| Benchmark (MSCI China All Shares) | 13.3% | 28.4% | -14.5% | 44.3% |
| NAV Excess | +9.0pct | +10.1pct | -12.3pct | -17.8pct |
Broken down by annual period (year ended each June 30), NAV returns were: 2022 -27.1%, 2023 -27.5%, 2024 -10.2%, 2025 +26.2%, 2026 +22.3%, versus benchmark returns of -15.1%, -21.6%, -3.6%, +17.6%, and +13.3% — significant underperformance in each of the first three years, followed by outperformance in the last two. Note: the benchmark was changed from MSCI AC Asia ex Pacific to MSCI China All Shares on September 16, 2020; multi-year comparisons are chain-linked data, and the measurement basis is not entirely consistent.
The portfolio comprises 59 holdings, with the top ten accounting for 47.6% and the top 30 for 79.5%; ByteDance alone represents 14.5% of assets, and together with Tencent (9.1%) the top two weights exceed 23%, forming a structure of "heavy positions in growth leaders plus a long tail." The report does not disclose purchases or sales during the period, so cash flow direction cannot be determined.
| Top Ten Holdings | % of Assets |
|---|---|
| ByteDance | 14.5% |
| Tencent | 9.1% |
| Alibaba | 4.5% |
| CATL | 4.0% |
| Zhongji Innolight | 3.4% |
| Ping An Insurance | 2.9% |
| China Construction Bank | 2.3% |
| NAURA Technology Group | 2.3% |
| Kweichow Moutai | 2.3% |
| China Merchants Bank | 2.3% |
| Total | 47.6% |
Sector allocation: Communication Services 25.6%, Information Technology 19.8%, Consumer Discretionary 18.5%, Industrials 12.2%, Financials 7.5%, Materials 7.4%, Consumer Staples 2.8%, Energy 2.2%, Utilities 1.8%, Health Care 1.8%, net current assets 0.4%.
The fund has total assets of £190.62m and total borrowings of £7.97m, giving gross gearing of 4% and net gearing of 3%; the share price of 305.00p represents a 9.0% discount to the NAV of 335.03p.