Three UK managers in different investment trust sectors have enjoyed mixed success having taken on new mandates since 2014, according to the latest FE Trustnet study. 
Almost a fifth of investment companies (18 per cent) appointed a new fund manager between the start of 2014 and the end of the first half of 2015, either as a sole manager or as part of a team.
Having previously looked at the investment trust managers in the IT Global sector that took charge during the above period, FE Trustnet examines three new UK fund managers in the IT UK Equity Income, IT UK All Companies and IT UK Equity & Bond Income sectors.
In an upcoming article, FE Trustnet will also look at Asia-focused investment trusts.
Perhaps the most high profile UK investment trust manager change in 2014 was that of Edinburgh Investment Trust, which saw FE Alpha Manager Mark Barnett take the reins.
He took over the top performing fund from fellow FE Alpha Manager Neil Woodford, who left Invesco to set up his own fund management business.
During Woodford’s tenure the fund returned 111.08 per cent, the eighth best in the sector of 23 funds, placing it in the second quartile of the IT UK Equity Income sector.
Barnett has a similar investing philosophy to Woodford in that he focuses on defensive blue-chip UK companies which produce stable dividends.
Performance of trust vs sector and benchmark since manager start
Source: FE Analytics
Since Barnett took over, the Edinburgh Investment Trust has returned 48.33 per cent – the fourth-best performance in the sector out of 24 funds.
The £1.4bn trust’s objective is to invest with sensible diversification in areas where it can make money in absolute terms; either driven by growing dividends or from companies that can improve or transform their financial prospects regardless of the shifting economic conditions.
The four crown-rated fund is 32.2 per cent weighted to financials and 11.6 per cent weighted to healthcare, while its top two holdings – Reynolds American and British American Tobacco – are both tobacco stocks.
The trust’s portfolio has a 50.5 per cent exposure to FTSE 100 names, 23.4 per cent in mid-caps and 15.2 per cent in international equities with 6 per cent held in smaller companies.
It is trading at a 4 per cent discount to net asset value (NAV), according to data from the Association of Investment Companies, however that has tightened from the 6.5 per cent in March this year.
The trust is 14 per cent geared, has a yield of 3.4 per cent and ongoing charges figure (OCF) of 0.6 per cent, according to the latest data from FE Trustnet.
In the IT UK All Companies sector, Philip Matthews took over the Schroder UK Growth in October 2014 but his trust has trailed its peers in recent years.
The £316m trust was managed by Richard Buxton for 11 years before he left Schroders for Old Mutual in 2013.
During Buxton’s tenure, the trust returned 184.43 per cent, 42.97 percentage points ahead of the FTSE All Share, but was in the bottom quartile of the IT UK All Companies sector.
It was managed by Julie Dean for 13 months between 2013 and 2014 before the ‘business cycle team’ managed the trust for a month and Matthews became the lead manager on the fund at the end of October 2014.
Since taking over the closed-end fund has returned 19.17 per cent, 7.52 percentage points behind the IT UK All Companies sector and 9.25 percentage points fewer than the FTSE All Share.
Performance of trust vs sector and benchmark since manager start
Source: FE Analytics
Of the 14 funds in the sector over this timeframe Schroder UK Growth is the ninth best performer, placing it in the third quartile.
Recently, the board of the trust made some minor changes to the investment policy, giving Matthews more flexibility.
The previous policy included an investment limit of 5 per cent of net assets in small caps and AIM stocks, while no holding could exceed 2 per cent.
Now there is no limit on smaller company exposure and the threshold for individual holdings has been increased to 5 per cent of the issued share capital.
The fund is 24.7 per cent invested in financials, 20.4 per cent in consumer services and 13.7 per cent in oil & gas stocks, with Shell and BP its two largest holdings.
The trust is trading on a 12.6 per cent discount, has a yield of 3.1 per cent and ongoing charges of 0.33 per cent according to data from the AIC.
The final fund that saw a new manager added was the Henderson High Income Trust in the IT UK Equity & Bond Income sector.
The fund was run by Alex Crooke, from 1997 to 2015 with current manager David Smith joining him on the fund at the start of 2014. Smith then took sole charge of the fund in June 2015.
Since he joined the strategy it has returned 28.63 per cent, 3.02 percentage points below the sector average but 1.96 percentage points ahead of the FTSE All Share.
Performance of trust vs sector and benchmark since manager start
Source: FE Analytics
The £290m trust is also below both the benchmark and sector since Smith took sole charge in 2015.
The portfolio has 25 per cent invested in financials and has a fixed income weighting of less than 10 per cent.
Its largest holding is British American Tobacco, with pharma giant AstraZeneca and oil titan Shell rounding out the top three.
It is 92 per cent invested in the UK with small stakes in the Netherlands, US, Ireland Switzerland and Germany.
The trust is trading at a discount of 0.6 per cent with a yield of 4.9 per cent and charges of 0.82 per cent, according to the latest data from the AIC.