Majedie's rejig of Edinburgh IT sees trust's discount narrow to 4.6%

New managers stamp their mark

In their first year of managing the Edinburgh Investment Trust, Majedie Asset Management has managed to narrow the company’s discount from 11% to 4.6% despite taking on management during the Covid pandemic and being burdened with legacy illiquid stocks from the Woodford era.

The £1.3bn trust has been managed by James de Uphaugh and Chris Field since March last year when they took over from Mark Barnett, who had run the trust since 2014 after taking the reins from Neil Woodford.  "Essentially, when one of these trusts changes manager the incoming manager looks at the existing portfolio and endeavours to change it in a way that minimises the cost for the trust," de Uphaugh said. "Inevitably, in many of these instances, there are one or two holdings that are difficult to sell or take longer to sell." In the case of the Edinburgh Investment Trust, the hold...