Cost disclosure confusion appears to have played a role in three alternative investment companies featuring on Hargreaves Lansdown’s most-sold list in February.

HICL Infrastructure (HICL ), The Renewables Infrastructure Group (TRIG ) and HarbourVest Global Private Equity (HVPE ) all featured on the most-sold list of the UK’s largest investment platform in February.

Deutsche Numis analysts Ash Nandi and Ewan Lovett-Turner pointed out that all three funds had experienced challenges with the platform after they put a zero ongoing charge on their ‘European Mifid templates’ (EMTs), which investment platforms use to provide information to their customers. Hargreaves Lansdown responded by barring the trusts from taking on new investments.

Since then, HarbourVest has reinstated an ongoing charge and is able to take on new investments again.

Hargreaves Lansdown confirmed to Citywire that HICL Infrastructure and The Renewables Infrastructure Group are also both available for trading again.

Elsewhere, it wasn’t all bad news for TRIG. In February, the fund of renewable energy assets featured as the ninth-most-popular trust on Interactive Investor’s platform.

BBGI Global Infrastructure (BBGI), another alternatives fund, featured as the most sold investment company on Hargreaves Lansdown in February, as investors sought to cash in on a share price spike following a £1bn takeover bid from a Canadian institutional investor.

Deutsche Numis analysis showed that Smithson (SSON ), the small-cap global trust which acknowledged ‘mediocre’ performance in 2024, appeared in seventh and fifth positions, respectively, on the most-sold lists of AJ Bell and Hargreaves Lansdown in February.

Most bought and sold investment trusts on Hargreaves Lansdown in February

Source: Hargreaves Lansdown (based on net number of deals placed, including regular savings)

Popular trusts

During the month, Scottish Mortgage (SMT ) was the most-bought trust across all four platforms in the analysis, also including Fidelity International. It was joined on all four lists by Greencoat UK Wind (UKW ), F&C (FCIT ) investment trust, JPMorgan Global Growth & Income (JJGI ) and Allianz Technology (ATT ).

Most-bought trusts over the past year

Source: Numis, interactive investor, AJ Bell, Fidelity and Hargreaves Lansdown

Two of these trusts have proved to be consistent favourites over the past 12 months. Scottish Mortgage and JGGI were the most consistently bought investment trusts across all four platforms over the year.

City of London (CTY ) also fared well, with 44 appearances across the platforms’ four most-bought lists out of a possible 48, followed by F&C with 42 appearances.

Deutsche Numis’s analysis showed that retail investors bought the dip after mega-cap US technology shares sold off in February – Allianz Technology appeared in all four most-bought lists in February, while Polar Capital Technology (PCT ) featured in three.

Private equity giant 3i (III ) appeared on Hargreaves Lansdown’s most-bought list for the first time in February, as well as AJ Bell and Interactive Investor’s top 10s, following a strong run of performance.