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Mark Barnett has been removed from the trust
following a period of poor performance
Edinburgh
Investment Trust
TRUSTNET
Woodford, it does signal investment
trust boards are starting to become
more active and more willing to
change managers if they aren’t happy
with performance. This is one of the
advantages of investment trusts, as
opposed to funds, and we could see
more action like this from trusts.”
FACT BOX
MANAGER: Mark Barnett (until Q1 2020) / LAUNCHED: 08/02/1952 / DISCOUNT/PREMIUM:
-10.64% / OCF: 0.56%
CROWN RATING
PERFORMANCE OF TRUST VS SECTOR
AND INDEX UNDER MANAGER
Edinburgh Investment Trust
(32.28%)
IT UK Equity
Income (34.52%)
FTSE All Share
(44.15%)
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
-10%
Barnett would be removed. The plan
is to replace him with Majedie Asset
Management chief investment officer
James de Uphaugh.
Analysts at Winterflood said: “Given
Edinburgh Investment Trust’s track
record since 2016, the news of a
change in manager should not have
come as a surprise.” They added
that it will become “a very different
proposition” under Majedie.
Edinburgh’s portfolio will become
closely aligned with the sub-
portfolio of the open-ended Majedie
UK Equity fund, which is managed
by de Uphaugh. This has made
190 per cent between inception on
31 December 2006 to the end of
November 2019, compared with 103
per cent from the FTSE All Share.
A key differentiator will be a new
emphasis on ‘Responsible Capitalism’
– an approach that directly integrates
N
ews that Invesco’s Mark
Barnett will be replaced as
manager of the Edinburgh
Investment Trust came as little
surprise to analysts.
Over the three years to the end of
November, the £1.3bn trust made a
loss of 0.37 per cent in total return
terms, compared with gains of 20.54
per cent from its average IT UK Equity
Income peer and 24 per cent from the
FTSE All Share.
Edinburgh’s board had been
reviewing the trust for some time,
blaming its lacklustre performance
on stock-specific issues rather than
broad market moves – which caused
it to “question the effectiveness of the
investment process”.
In the trust’s interim results in mid-
December, chairman Glen Suarez
said he was “disappointed by another
weak result” and announced that
environmental, social and governance
(ESG) considerations into the
investment process, without the use
of third-party overlays or screens.
Ryan Hughes, head of active
portfolios at AJ Bell, commented:
“While the move is under very
different circumstances to Neil
Source: FE Analytics
trustnet.com