Fundraising by existing investment trust companies in 2021 has already exceeded the previous 2019 record for secondary fundraising — with £8.71 billion raised so far — according to the Association of Investment Companies (AIC).

This already exceeds the previous record for such “secondary fundraising” which was set in 2019 with £7.35 billion raised over the whole calendar year.

The investment trust fundraising has been led by the renewable energy infrastructure sector, which raised £1.69 billion.

This was followed by infrastructure (£988 million), growth capital (£803 million) and property – europe (£556 million).

The largest individual secondary fundraising was by Baillie Gifford’s Schiehallion Fund (£503 million), followed by Digital 9 Infrastructure, which raised £300 million in its IPO in March then went on to raise a further £450 million.

There were nine IPOs up to October 4 raising £2.08 billion, which already exceeds the funds raised by IPOs in both 2019 and 2020.

The AIC represents 390 closed-end investment companies which have total assets of £265 billion.

AIC CEO Richard Stone said: “Healthy fundraising by investment companies this year is a sign that they have bounced back from the pandemic and are continuing to meet investors’ needs.

“It’s particularly encouraging to see such significant fundraising for long-term assets in areas such as renewable energy infrastructure and ambitious growth companies.

“Directing capital into these areas is critical to rebuilding the economy as the recovery from the pandemic gathers pace.

“There is clearly strong investor demand and the closed-ended structure of investment companies continues to provide investors with a proven means of gaining exposure to less liquid assets.”