OUR MANAGERS IN FOCUS
Witan's investment team
Andrew Bell and James Hart have overall responsibility for Witan’s investment portfolio, under the direction of the Board. They also manage Witan’s portfolio of direct holdings in specialist investment companies.
Selecting the right managers
We identify managers who can demonstrate independence of thought and a clear alignment of interest between themselves and their clients. They will have a clearly articulated and repeatable investment process, a high degree of intellectual rigour and sound judgement to enable them to identify attractive companies and combine them into concentrated, differentiated portfolios. All our managers are signatories to the UNPRI and each is expected to demonstrate a clear commitment to incorporating ESG factors into their investment process.
OUR MANAGERS IN FOCUS
Monitoring and engaging with our managers
We meet with our managers regularly to discuss investment and governance issues and we expect them to uphold the highest fiduciary standards. As part of our investment process, we can adjust manager selection and allocations to ensure we create a combined portfolio with the potential to deliver consistent long-term outperformance, while our multi-manager structure helps reduce the risks associated with a single management style.
Our breadth of expertise adds value throughout the asset allocation process as follows:
Identifying opportunties
Selecting the right managers
Monitoring the portfolio
Engaging with managers
Making changes where appropriate
Identifying opportunities
What sets Witan apart is our unique, diversified but high-conviction portfolio structure, consisting of two distinct but complementary elements: core and specialist. This gives shareholders access to a range of investments with the aim of providing better returns over the long term while short-term performance may be quite different from that of the Company’s benchmark.
Structuring our portfolio
We act as a one-stop shop for global equity investment. We search for the best fund managers internationally, so the portfolio is not reliant on the stock-picking skills of one individual. The multi-manager team-based approach ensures that the portfolio embraces many companies, sectors and geographies.
The sheer variety of investment opportunities means that they are not always obvious or easy to reach.
Some managers focus on large, well-known companies; while others might seek to profit from pioneering businesses in specialist sectors. However, investment opportunities evolve over time. When that happens, we can appoint or replace managers accordingly.
Core portfolio managers
Core portfolio managers
Mark Baribeau
JENNISON ASSOCIATES, LLC
Mark Baribeau, Head of Global Equities at Jennison Associates, and co-Portfolio Managers Tom Davis and Rebecca Irwin seek to invest in a portfolio of market-leading companies with innovative business models, positively inflecting growth rates, and long-term competitive advantages.
Mark, Tom and Rebecca work closely alongside a highly experienced team of research analysts to employ a high-conviction, fundamental bottom-up approach that is sector, region and country-agnostic.
The team invests in a select group of companies with innovative and disruptive businesses that are driving structural shifts in their respective industries. They also look for companies with defensible business models and attractive product offerings, supported by secular demand trends. The portfolio typically has between 35 and 45 holdings and securities must meet stringent standards in order to remain or earn a place in the portfolio.
Mandate: Global
Style: Companies with exceptional growth prospects
Benchmark: MSCI ACWI
Inception date: 31/08/2020
UNPRI signatory: Yes
Information is correct as at 31/12/23
Please remember past performance is not a guide to future performance. The value of an investment and the income from it can fall as well as rise as a result of currency and market fluctuation and you may not get back the amount originally invested.
Peter Davies
LANSDOWNE PARTNERS (UK) LLP
Founded in 1998, Lansdowne Partners has evolved to become one of the UK’s pre-eminent investment management boutiques. The Long Only Developed Markets strategy, managed by Peter Davies and Jonathon Regis, combines a detailed thematic approach with rigorous company analysis to identify an adaptable portfolio positioned for underappreciated or contrarian trends.
The two lead managers benefit from the support provided by a team of experienced and insightful analysts who tend to focus on key sectors of interest to the team.
The high-conviction portfolio is the result of detailed company-specific research, allied with an appreciation of global thematic developments. The team is willing to make significant adjustments to the portfolio to reflect its view of the changing investment landscape.
Mandate: Global
Style: Concentrated, benchmark-independent investment in developed markets
Benchmark: MSCI ACWI
Inception date: 14/12/2012
UNPRI signatory: Yes
Information is correct as at 31/12/23
Please remember past performance is not a guide to future performance. The value of an investment and the income from it can fall as well as rise as a result of currency and market fluctuation and you may not get back the amount originally invested.
Nick Train and Michael Lindsell
LINDSELL TRAIN LIMITED
Lindsell Train has over 20 years of heritage managing high-conviction (20-35 companies), long-only equity portfolios on behalf of clients globally. Underpinning its investment focus is Lindsell Train’s simple organisational structure with a small team of 26 professionals. Being majority employee owned empowers Lindsell Train to employ a genuinely long-term approach, resulting in exceptionally low turnover, which is a key differentiating quality.
Lindsell Train’s investment universe is comprised of quoted companies that it determines to be “exceptional”, by which it means companies that possess deep economic moats that enable the companies to maintain growth and pricing power, sustain above average real rates of return over the long term, and weather different market environments. The investment philosophy is premised on the belief that the market persistently undervalues the significant value creation from the compounding effects of cash flows and dividends of such exceptionally durable businesses.
Mandate: Global
Style: Long-term growth from undervalued brands
Benchmark: MSCI ACWI
Inception date: 01/09/2010*
UNPRI signatory: Yes
Information is correct as at 31/12/23
**Lindsell Train managed a UK portfolio from 01.09.10 until 31.12.19
Please remember past performance is not a guide to future performance. The value of an investment and the income from it can fall as well as rise as a result of currency and market fluctuation and you may not get back the amount originally invested.
Andy Headley
VERITAS ASSET MANAGEMENT LLP
Andy Headley, Head of Global Strategies at Veritas, ensures the team use a number of research methods to help identify industries and companies that are well positioned to benefit from medium-term growth, regardless of where they are located. The aim is to generate excellent real returns and minimise the risk of permanent capital loss. Potential investments are analysed from an absolute basis rather than relative to any benchmark or index.
This equity portfolio follows a Global Focus strategy, investing with a disciplined approach to valuation in ‘quality’ mid to large capitalisation companies. It typically contains fewer than 30 stocks, chosen with a highly selective and rigorous approach, and is focused on a handful of investment themes.
Mandate: Global
Style: Real return objective from high-quality companies
Benchmark: MSCI ACWI
Inception date: 11/11/2010
UNPRI signatory: Yes
Information is correct as at 31/12/23
Please remember past performance is not a guide to future performance. The value of an investment and the income from it can fall as well as rise as a result of currency and market fluctuation and you may not get back the amount originally invested.
Mike Trigg
WCM INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT
Based in Laguna Beach, California, WCM is an independent asset management firm that runs focused portfolios, comprised of high-quality businesses with growing economic moats, aligned with strong, adaptable corporate cultures, and supported by durable global tailwinds. The portfolio is concentrated in 30-40 high conviction investments with the objective of securing long-term excess return and downside protection.
As an active manager, WCM believes that their investee companies have meaningful structural advantages which, when allied with a ‘buy and manage’ low turnover approach, will allow long-term outperformance of the relevant benchmark.
Mandate: Global
Style: High quality companies with strong culture and increasing competitive advantage
Benchmark: MSCI ACWI
Inception date: 31/08/2020
UNPRI signatory: Yes
Information is correct as at 31/12/23
Please remember past performance is not a guide to future performance. The value of an investment and the income from it can fall as well as rise as a result of currency and market fluctuation and you may not get back the amount originally invested.
Specialist portfolio managers
Specialist portfolio managers
Lucas White
GMO
GMO was co-founded in 1977 by the well-known investor and climate-focused philanthropist Jeremy Grantham.
The investment process is grounded in a long-term, valuation-based investment philosophy – an approach which GMO believes provides the best risk-adjusted returns. The Climate Change strategy seeks to deliver high total return by investing primarily in equities of companies that are positioned to benefit, directly or indirectly, from efforts to curb or mitigate
the long-term effects of global climate change, to address the environmental challenges presented by global climate change, or to improve the efficiency of resource consumption. As climate change is among the most important investment issues facing investors today, GMO believes that there are exceptional opportunities for long-term investors in a world mobilising to address climate change.
Mandate: Global
Style: Companies positioned to benefit from climate change mitigation/adaptation efforts
Benchmark: MSCI ACWI
Inception date: 05/06/2019
UNPRI signatory: Yes
Information is correct as at 31/12/23
Please remember past performance is not a guide to future performance. The value of an investment and the income from it can fall as well as rise as a result of currency and market fluctuation and you may not get back the amount originally invested.
Brian Kersmanc
GQG PARTNERS LLC
The GQG Partners Emerging Markets Equity strategy seeks long-term capital appreciation. GQG Partners seeks to invest in high-quality, attractively priced companies exhibiting competitive advantages.
QQG’s investment process aims to evaluate each business with a focus on financial strength, sustainability of earnings growth, and quality of management. The resulting portfolio seeks to manage the downside risk of equity investments while providing attractive returns to long-term investors over a full market cycle.
Mandate: Emerging markets
Style: High-quality companies with attractively priced growth prospects
Benchmark: MSCI Emerging Markets
Inception date: 16/02/2017
UNPRI signatory: Yes
Information is correct as at 31/12/23
Please remember past performance is not a guide to future performance. The value of an investment and the income from it can fall as well as rise as a result of currency and market fluctuation and you may not get back the amount originally invested.
Andrew Bell and James Hart
Witan Investment Trust plc
A selection of specialist collective funds investing in both quoted and unquoted companies. These specialist themes tend to be outside the scope of investment for most equity investment managers.
Style: Specialist collective funds
Benchmark: Witan's benchmark
Inception date: 19/03/2010
UNPRI Signatory: Yes
*Witan Investment Trust is an equity investment. Please note that past performance is not a guide to future performance. The value of an investment and the income from it can fall as well as rise as a result of currency and market fluctuation and you may not get back the amount originally invested.
Discrete performance (%) †
| Q2 2019 Q2 2020 | Q2 2020 Q2 2021 | Q2 2021 Q2 2022 | Q2 2022 Q2 2023 | Q2 2023 Q2 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Share Price | -11.6 | 34.7 | -12.6 | 12.8 | 21.4 |
| Net Asset Value‡ | -8.9 | 37.4 | -11.8 | 13.8 | 15.0 |
| Benchmark# | 2.3 | 24.5 | -2.6 | 11.2 | 19.5 |
|
Relative numbers may not add up due to rounding. |
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Responsible investment
Find out how responsible investment is integrated into our strategy