Witan IT faces 'uphill struggle' as managers lose 'Midas touch'

Concerns grow following prolonged underperformance

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...