Witan Investment Trust (LON:WTAN) has employed an active multi-manager strategy since 2004, offering investors diverse exposure to global equities. In 2017, the trust delivered another year of outperformance versus its composite benchmark, which it has surpassed over the last one, three, five and 10 years. WTAN’s investment director, James Hart, believes that equities can continue to offer attractive returns for the patient investor, although he notes that stock market volatility is now higher than the benign levels experienced in 2017. In this environment, he believes that active stock picking, rather than blanket equity exposure, should produce better returns for investors. WTAN has a progressive dividend policy; its annual distribution has increased for the last 43 consecutive years.
Investment strategy: Focused external managers
In adopting a multi-manager strategy, alongside select direct investments in specialist funds and smaller, niche managers, WTAN aims to generate the highest returns possible, with lower volatility than may occur from exposure to a single manager. The current level of 10 external managers is made up of three UK, three global, two European, one Asia Pacific (including Japan) and one emerging market specialist. All are selected for their high-conviction, long-term approaches to investment. Corporate level gearing of up to 20% of NAV is permitted.
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