JANUS HENDERSON FUND MANAGEMENT UK LIMITED

THE EUROPEAN SMALLER COMPANIES TRUST PLC

LEGAL ENTITY IDENTIFIER: 213800N1B1HCQG2W4V90

28 October 2024

THE EUROPEAN SMALLER COMPANIES TRUST PLC

(the 'Company')

Market purchase by the Company of its own shares

Notification is given that, pursuant to the authority granted at the Annual General Meeting of the Company held on 27 November 2023 to make market purchases of the Company's own ordinary shares up to a maximum of 14.99%, a market purchase of 25,000 ordinary shares in the capital of the Company was made today at a price of 172.4p per share. These shares will be held in treasury.

Following the above purchase, the Company's issued ordinary share capital will continue to be 394,632,326 ordinary shares of 1.5625p each, of which 817,028 (0.2% of the issued share capital) are held in treasury and have no voting rights.

Holders of the Company's ordinary shares are entitled to one vote for every share held. As treasury shares have no voting rights, the total number of voting rights in the Company is now 393,815,298.  Shareholders should use this figure for notifications in keeping with the provisions of DTR 5.

For further information, please call:

Colleen Sutcliffe

Janus Henderson Secretarial Services UK Limited

Corporate Secretary

Telephone: 020 7818 5919

Dan Howe

Head of Investment Trusts

Janus Henderson Investors

Telephone: 020 7818 4458

Harriet Hall

PR Director, Investment Trusts

Janus Henderson Investors

Telephone: 020 7818 2919