Beating the market year after year is not the easiest of tasks, which is why most fund managers prefer to be assessed over a five or ten-year period, rather than a rolling 12 months. And if that were not enough of a challenge for Mark Barnett, he had the extra pressure of filling some conspicuously big shoes when he took over as the manager of the £1.7 billion Edinburgh Investment Trust in 2014.
He had to follow on from Neil Woodford, widely seen as one of the most successful managers of his generation, who had returned more than 108 per cent for Edinburgh shareholders in about six years after taking over the mandate in September 2008.
The trust was founded in 1889, was listed on