Witan hands £80m mandate to Veritas

Witan has handed Veritas an £80m global equity mandate after reallocating funds from the US and Japan.

Henderson had previously run the North American enhanced index portfolio, while the Japanese assets were managed by Brandes Investment Partners.

Witan says the change marks a further stage in its evolution to a multi-manager structure with a more active and high conviction approach.

The Veritas portfolio, based upon its Global Focus Strategy is a concentrated, is managed by Andy Headley and Charles Richardson.

Initial regional exposure of mandate is North America 30%, Europe 20%, UK 18%, Asia (ex-Japan) and emerging markets 18%, with the balance in cash. Its objective is to outperform the MSCI World Index and generate real returns of 6-10% over a rolling 3-5 year period.

"Whilst North America and Japan are still important markets for us we believe that global stock-picking managers have greater scope to generate superior returns," Witan investment trust chief executive Andrew Bell says.

"Veritas' unconstrained global thematic approach is a good fit with our three other global equity managers, who collectively manage 34% of the trust's portfolio."