Investment Trust Witan Altered Manager Allocations, Terminated Pzena
Posted on 06/03/2020
Multi-manager global investment trust Witan, which has £1.5 billion in assets under management, terminated three of its external fund managers. The Witan trust lost 17% between January 1, 2020 till May 30, 2020. Witan’s chief Andrew Bell said in a release that “shareholders could be forgiven for thinking that Witan and its managers had been afflicted with a reverse Midas touch — everything we touch having seemingly turned to lead earlier in the year.”
Witan is seeking to turnaround its share performance. Witan dropped Pzena Investment Management Limited, which managed a global valued equities portfolio. That money was reinvested in equity index futures and a U.S. equity exchange-traded fund, as Witan seeks to find a replacement fund manager. Pzena Investment Management oversaw 12% of the trust’s money, or about £216 million, according to a recent fact sheet.
Witan had terminated allocations to star European fund managers Richard Pease of CRUX Asset Management Ltd. and Stuart Mitchell of SW Mitchell Capital LLP in February 2020. These managers both ran small European listed equity portfolios, each around a 2% of the trust’s assets, or about £36 million each.
Witan had a tough first quarter 2020 in performance. Witan also modified its asset allocation from U.K. investments of 19% down to U.K. investments to 15%. Non-U.K. investments increased from 81% to 85%. Witan also indicated a slight geographic change to allocate more assets to the U.S. stock market. This asset allocation benchmark change happened at the start of 2020.
Keywords: Witan Investment Trust plc.