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Witan Investment Trust has announced that it has outperformed its benchmark since adopting a multi-manager structure in September 2004.

In its unaudited half-year results, the board announced its net asset value by share outperformed its benchmark by 0.6 per cent to the six months of June 2008, and by 4.4 per cent since adopting its multi-manager structure.

The trust's two new UK active managers, Artemis and Marathon have made an encouraging start, beating their benchmarks by 5.9 per cent and 2 per cent respectively. Three of the trust's longer standing active managers have produced strong relative performance, it said.

Its fund Southeastern, that specialises in global equities and Orbis, in Australasia, have underperformed but their long-term track-record remains highly credible, according to Witan. Varenne has also underperformed since appointment in May this year but its concentrated portfolio of 10 European equities means that volatile returns are to be expected in the short-term according to the investment trust.

Jim Horsburgh, chief executive officer of Witan Investment Trust, said: "Extremely high levels of volatility continue to dominate markets and this sustained period of uncertainty demonstrates that investing in equities is not without risk.

"Witan's performance will fluctuate in the short-term but in the last four years we have assembled some of the best fund managers from across the globe. Their active approach to stock selection, combined with the smoothing effect of the Trust's multi-manager structure should generate strong returns for our shareholders over the full investment cycle."