Witan Investment Share Discussion Threads

[vacendak] 08/4/2024 08:52

Looks like people have had enough.





Not sure what would be the best exit plan though. The previous change of strategy for Witan Pacific (WPC) was to become China only with BGCG and that eventually crashed badly. They could still keep the same strategy with a better manager since Alliance (ATST) seems to be doing okay.

[sharesoc] 25/3/2024 14:47

ShareSoc is hosting a webinar with Witan Investment Trust #WTAN on 25 April 2024, 4:30pm which may be of interest to current shareholders or potential investors. James Hart, Investment Director will present an overview of Witan Investment Trust and a review of 2023. The presentation will last approximately 30 mins followed by a 30 mins Q&A, where you can ask direct questions.
To register:

[vacendak] 30/12/2023 14:37

Doing a bad copy/paste from the November factsheet:


3m 6m 1yr 3yrs 5yrs 10yrs
NAV-Benchmark Relative -2.4 -4.2 -1.3 -9.7 -21.8 -18.4

And they show the NAV, which usually looks better than the share price
I am usually in the camp of active funds and sneer at ETFs/trackers, but in this case I must admit that a pedestrian tracker of their so-called composite benchmark - they are not even able to find a mix to flatter their results! - would beat WTAN.

So, indeed: "What is the point of Witan?"

[robertball] 28/12/2023 09:24

Gmo climate change is a 2% drag

[vacendak] 03/7/2023 09:48

Good question about WTAN now being at 40% of the original share number.

The excuses for underperformance are boiler plate: "When one drives a car, they look ahead, not in the rear-view mirror" and other platitudes.

Good video otherwise, good questions and decent grilling.

As noted above, I have exited WTAN a while ago and remain happy with my decision. I got tired of the "we are on track to do better next quarter" music for years on end... and they are still playing that tune.

[sharesoc] 02/7/2023 20:39

In case you missed our webinar with Witan Investment Trust plc (WTAN), the recording can be found on our YouTube channel:

[sharesoc] 11/6/2023 02:22

ShareSoc is hosting a webinar with Witan Investment Trust plc (WTAN) on 27 June 2023, which may be of interest to current shareholders or potential investors. James Hart (Investment Director) will be presenting. You can register here:

[vacendak] 19/8/2022 10:32

Now underperforming over 5 years.

More excuses about Ukraine and "not being prepared for it" as if their benchmark was.
The lamest excuse being about the timing of their interim results, with the usual "the second half of the reporting period looks better than the first".

The article mentions that the buybacks are not going anywhere. The discount remains high.

The dividend, while increasing to keep the "dividend hero" tag, is no longer covered (however, the reserves are still strong, so it can go on for a while like this) and WTAN compares badly to its peers.

I would not be surprised if the Board began to make some noise, if not, they should.

[vacendak] 24/4/2022 18:13

Useful link that helps a lot with my thirst for confirmation bias. :)



It is about two years old, but good data nonetheless to compare from the '90s to 2020.

[vacendak] 24/4/2022 17:12

Well, this is it. I have now sold and fully exited WTAN.
The latest factsheet was egregious in its wording to excuse bad performance.

"Whilst a wide discount (7.9% at the end of March) is
unwelcome, it may offer an opportunity for long-term investors and
affords the Company the opportunity to repurchase shares for the
benefit of our shareholders, who experience an uplift to the NAV of
the shares they hold."

Sorry, but a wide discount in this case it not Mr Market being wrong, it is the fund performing badly and running out of excuses.

As an aside, again in the March factsheet: While they kind of admit having realised that "it might be good to be at least a bit in Oil & Gas now", they are just too late doing so.

However, what took the biscuit was this:
"The other notable purchase was a new investment in the SPDR S&P Biotech ETF, an
Exchange Traded Fund designed to track the performance of an equal-weighted (as opposed to market-cap weighted) index of US biotechnology companies. This index has declined by over 40% since its peak just over a year ago, so appears to present an attractive entry point into a sector whose long-term growth prospects and specialist nature, make it an ideal candidate for inclusion within our Direct Holdings portfolio of specialist funds."

I did not mind their holding of some US tracker after having terminated one of the manager contracts and looking for another to replace them. This was a temporary measure. This one though is an "active" Investment Trust buying "passive" for the long term. So, no thank you, I could put this in my ISA on my own were I inclined to do it. As for the climate change obsession, I could just get one of those green bonds from National Savings instead of paying Witan for the privilege of seeing my money eroded by inflation but "doing good".

For the "Global/low risk/just beat the index" component of my portfolio I will now hold only FCIT (Foreign & Colonial). FCIT is also a piece of history and extremely liquid (offer/spread vanishingly small); while they are also getting a bit annoying with ESG/climate they still seem to ensure that making money is the first order of the day.

[vacendak] 11/4/2022 15:52

@CHC15
Indeed, I may have to admit I was wrong.

Then again this is the internet, if I said so, it would break everything! :)

[chc15] 11/4/2022 08:51

I did say this is sham of a trust, way better in an index tracker.

[vacendak] 17/3/2022 17:11

Another year and another "Sorry we got it wrong again and are still below the benchmark... we had aligned the portfiolio for more growth... blah blah blah... Omicron... Blah blah blah... Putin/Ukraine... Not our fault..."

From the AR: Over the past five years, three of them have been below the benchmark (the last two significantly) and only two above. 2017 was the last time WTAN did its job and beat the benchmark in a decent way.

Put the discount on top of that: The last time there was a premium was 2013. The competition has done better. FCIT (Foreign & Colonial) was issuing treasury shares, enjoying a premium, last year.

Getting pretty annoyed at the moment.

[sharesoc] 21/11/2021 21:15

In case you missed our webinar with Witan Investment Trust last month you can watch it here:

[sharesoc] 26/9/2021 22:23

We are hosting a webinar with Witan Investment Trust on the 12th October, which may be of interest to shareholders and potential investors. James Hart, Investment Director, will be presenting:

[octopus6] 09/9/2021 16:55

Useful WTAN info on a new doceo site - doceo.tv/funds/witan

[vacendak] 07/9/2021 09:42

Topped up the "boring but safe" part of my portfolio yesterday with a bit of WTAN.
It has acquired a nice little momentum of late, so hopefully it will carry on like that.

[vacendak] 02/7/2021 16:43

The May factsheet may be a bit old by now, but I have only read it now.

They have definitely turned the tide and placed good bets on WCM and Jennison. They have now allocated more funds to these two latest additions.

"...the last 12 months and has delivered a 38.7% gain over that period.
This compares favourably with the benchmark’s total return of
23.8%"

[vacendak] 06/10/2020 17:34

An Edison report on WTAN.

Sort of optimistic when focusing on the last month and three months.
It is also true that the magnitude of the recent b*ollocksing up of the trust has had a very strong impact on the long term comparison to the benchmark. In other words, until early 2020, the 10 year vs. benchmark was positive.

Not so sure about the so called focus or specialist approach touted near the beginning of the report. This is only about 16% of the portfolio anyway, the rest being the usual mish-mash of global this/global that.

Maybe I am also too negative about it, but the new ESG/Climate change mandate thing is not really appealing: This is an investment trust: Either it makes money or it does not. I am not investing in a feel good factor.

[chc15] 20/9/2020 19:44

Interesting is all i can say. Fact is this trust has not beaten the global index for years. It's a sham.

[poikka] 11/9/2020 18:23

End August

GMO Climate Change Fund 2.9
Apax Global Alpha 2.8
Syncona 2.5
Unilever 2.1
BlackRock World Mining Trust 1.9
Princess Private Equity 1.7
Taiwan Semiconductor 1.7
Charter Communications 1.6
Alphabet 1.5
Tesco 1.5
Alibaba 1.3
Safran 1.1
London Stock Exchange 1.1
PayPal 1.1
Nintendo 1.0
Tencent 1.0
BT 1.0
Heineken 1.0
Mastercard 1.0
Diageo 1.0

[chc15] 04/9/2020 16:04

Why didn't they just do half and half, or better 3 ways with the etf. All too late now.

[vacendak] 04/9/2020 09:48

The new US managers have been appointed and the poker chips allocated 2:1

$200 mils to WCM


$100 mils to Jennison