Witan Investment Trust faces "an uphill struggle to repair the material damage inflicted upon what is a strong brand", according to one broker, as analysts weigh up the 111-year-old trust's prospects after its managers admitted they may have been "afflicted with a reverse Midas touch".
A prolonged period of "unusually poor performance" forced managers Andrew Bell and James Hart to apologise to investors and to overhaul the global multi-manager trust's underlying mandates. Bell and Hart said 2020 had been "a disappointing time for our shareholders", as the Covid-19 pandemic sent losses for the year to the end of May to 17%, well below its benchmark's 5% loss. The managers attributed three-quarters of that to poor performance of its underlying portfolio, exacerbated by entering the Covid crisis highly geared and the cost of early repayment of the trust's secured bonds...
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