TEMPUS

Independent Investment Trust provides calm amid the storm

An exposure to housebuilders and banks resulted in the trust’s share price more than halving during the financial crisis
An exposure to housebuilders and banks resulted in the trust’s share price more than halving during the financial crisis
ALAMY

You might imagine that an investment trust with a large portion of its portfolio exposed to the British economy would have been going through substantial changes in recent months (Greig Cameron writes). In fact, Independent Investment Trust has had a relatively benign spell, with few alterations to its portfolio and its net asset value return of 8.1 per cent being ahead of both the FTSE All-Share Index and FTSE All-World Index in the six months to the end of May.

Independent was set up in 2000 by Max Ward after he left Baillie Gifford, the Edinburgh-based investment firm, where he had managed the Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust for more than a decade. Mr Ward put in £5 million of his own money into Independent and