Edinburgh Investment Trust Half Yearly Report - Flipbook - Page 7
THE EDINBURGH INVESTMENT TRUST PLC / STRATEGIC REPORT / 5
MARKETING
We were delighted to host a well-attended Annual General
Meeting in Edinburgh in July. Similarly, we hosted a popular
presentation to retail investors in central London in October.
Thank you to the shareholders who took the trouble to attend
one or both of these events. Videos of these presentations
have since been posted to the Company’s website. We will
flag other events and presentations on the website and via
other media (including the occasional old-fashioned letter
via Royal Mail – this helped generate much interest in the
London event). Shareholders can also subscribe to updates
via the website, which is a quick and easy way to ensure that
you are up to date on all the Company’s different activities.
Other promotional activities are underway – for example
in both print media and online – and the Board carefully
reviews the success of these initiatives against a series of key
performance indicators.
MANAGER SUCCESSION
We announced last month that James de Uphaugh, the
Company’s Portfolio Manager, will retire in February 2024
after 36 years in the industry. James will continue to manage
the Company’s portfolio until February and will then be
replaced as Portfolio Manager by his colleague Imran
Sattar. As part of the succession, Imran has been appointed
the Company’s deputy Portfolio Manager, replacing Chris
Field who has recently retired from Liontrust. I would like
to thank James and Chris for their careful stewardship of
the Company’s portfolio and strong investment results since
the appointment of the investment management team in
March 2020.
Once in place as the Company’s Portfolio Manager, Imran will
continue to apply the same flexible investment process that
has been the hallmark of the portfolio since March 2020. Other
than the change of Portfolio Manager, there will be no change
to the Company’s two investment objectives, strategy or the
portfolio’s key features – namely a high conviction portfolio
of 40 to 50 differentiated holdings, primarily invested in
UK equities, underpinned by fundamental company research.
Imran, like James, will also be supported by a collegiate team
of nine fund managers and analysts: the depth of experience
across the GFT will be an important factor to ensure the
repeatability of attractive long-term returns in the years
ahead. The rest of the Board and I look forward to working
with Imran. We will make a further announcement about the
wider team responsible for managing the Company, including
a deputy Portfolio Manager, in due course.
OUTLOOK
As well as delivering on the Company’s two investment
objectives, we would like to see Edinburgh considered as
a natural ‘core’ equity investment for savers in the UK and
beyond. There is much to be done to achieve this objective,
but we are confident that we are making strides towards
that goal. A new Portfolio Manager will take the Company
forward in 2024 and we look forward to working with him
and his colleagues in the years ahead.
ELISABETH STHEEMAN
Chair
20 NOVEMBER 2023
Imran has been a member of the Liontrust Global
Fundamental Team (‘GFT’) since 2018, managing UK equity
client portfolios jointly alongside James and Chris. Imran is
also lead manager for another UK equity strategy in his own
right. Before joining the GFT, he was a Managing Director and
Fund Manager at BlackRock, where he managed UK equity
funds with combined assets of over £2 billion. Imran joined
Mercury Asset Management (now BlackRock) in 1997, where
he first worked with James. He will become head of the GFT
in February 2024. Imran has already been out introducing
himself to shareholders and this process will continue ahead
of February’s transition.