Witan Investment Trust has awarded a £120 million European mandate to Marathon Asset Management, dumping previous manager Wellington Asset Management.

Marathon will combine part of their existing UK-only mandate with the Europe ex-UK mandate. Varenne Capital Partners, Witan's other European manager, will continue to manage its smaller private equity style portfolio.

Andrew Bell, chief executive at Witan Investment Trust, said the appointment was part of its multi-manager approach to investing.

He said: ‘Marathon is a well-established manager of European equities with an outstanding track record.

‘By broadening their mandate we have increased their universe of stocks and therefore their scope to find the best companies in sectors that meet their capital cycle investment strategy.’

The investment trust said that it had also increased its usage of derivatives recently, a new strategy for the fund.

Equity index futures were used to increase its equity exposure since early June during the transition of the European mandate from Wellington to Marathon.

Bell said, ‘The use of equity index futures enables us to take advantage of investment opportunities arising from outbreaks of volatility in financial markets and to make adjustments to our asset allocation, without interfering with the stock picking role of our appointed investment managers.’