Coombs calls for trust giants to become more specialised

Rathbones' multi-asset head David Coombs has said the UK's largest investment trusts must reconsider their branding and investment strategies if they are to attract more interest from fund buyers.

Coombs (pictured) praised the recent move by British Assets to convert its portfolio into a multi-asset income offering and shift management from F&C to BlackRock, and urged other trusts to consider overhauls of their own. The manager, who holds a variety of trusts across areas including property and European equities, said some of the biggest ITs in the market continue to adopt a generalist approach, to detrimental effect. "They need to look at what is going on in the rest of the market. There are no equivalent funds in the open-ended sector, managing large amounts of money without a...