Witan IT pays price for being over-geared

Andrew Bell's £1.1bn Witan investment trust has conceded it was too highly leveraged last year, after reporting a sharp drop in its NAV for 2011.

The popular trust revealed its NAV tumbled 10.9% last year, compared to the benchmark's decline of 7%, having built up gearing ahead of the market correction in Q3. This contrasts with the trust outperforming its benchmark by 3.4% last year. In the first half of last year the trust increased leverage from 5.4% to 11%, leaving it highly geared when the sell-off came. Harry Henderson, chairman of Witan, admitted the company paid the price for being too positively positioned last year. "We felt that the markets were acting over-emotionally and positioned the portfolio so that Wita...