Heavy discounts prompt Coombs to boost IT holdings for Rathbone

David Coombs has boosted the investment trust holdings within his Rathbone Strategic Growth Portfolio as discounts to net asset value have narrowed.

The £26.5m fund of funds, which Rathbones recently opened to external investors, now has 17.3% in investment trusts, up 4% since the start of the year. The manager has shifted emphasis from listed hedge funds to listed equity and property funds. Coombs says: “We have used investment trusts this year because they have been at big discounts to NAV, but last year we did not hold much. “Investment trusts are particularly appropriate for asset classes that suffer from periods of illiquidity, which is usually when they are under stress. This can be particularly unhelpful for open ended fun...