Bolton vs Woodford: Mixed year for investment trust stars

Industry heavyweights Neil Woodford and Anthony Bolton have had contrasting fortunes running their closed-ended vehicles over the past year.

Woodford’s defensive stance has paid off during a year of turbulent markets, with his £920m Edinburgh Investment trust returning 16.5%.

Large positions in GlaxoSmithKline, AstraZeneca, and British American Tobacco have held up well, with the trust the second top performer out of AIC members.

The only trust to better Woodford was the sector specialist Biotech Growth trust, managed by Frostrow Capital, which returned 23%.

In contrast, Anthony Bolton’s £570m China Special Situations trust is the second worst performer, falling 31.2%.

The trust’s share price dropped 20% in the first six months of the year. Bolton said the trust had been hit by the put options he took out on the Korean index. This became the greatest negative contributor to performance.

The only trust to fare worse in NAV return terms over one year is the Blue Planet Financials Growth & Income trust, which lost 32.2%.

NAV TOTAL RETURN ON £100

30/11/10-30/11/11     Data from the AIC - which represents 89% of the investment trust universe .