CQS Natural Resources Growth and Income’s (CYN ) longest-running manager Ian Francis has stepped down from the £93m commodities trust from today.

He began managing the fund in 2009, and since then the shares have delivered a total return of £211.9% – well ahead of the other five commodities and natural resources trusts with a long enough track record. The next closest performers are BlackRock’s World Mining (BRWM ) and Energy & Resources Income (BERI ) trusts, which were up 183.1% and 173.2% over the same period.

Francis was responsible for the portfolio’s fixed interest, convertible and preferred stock investments, which were used to finance the enhanced dividend policy CYN adopted in May of this year.

Activist shareholder Saba Capital agreed to withdraw its second requisitioned general meeting against CYN in March for it to undergo a strategic review, which saw the trust commit to a heightened dividend of 8% per annum. The yield has since halved from 4% to 2% but is paid out more frequently at once a quarter.

However, this increased yield came at the expense of assets under Francis’ remit, with non-equity investments falling to just 2.3% of the portfolio.

As such, he will now leave the trust’s management in the hands of co-managers Keith Watson and Rob Crayfourd – who both joined the team in 2013 – to ‘concentrate on his other fixed interest portfolio management clients’.

Francis has also been the sole manager of the £326m CQS New City High Yield (NCYF ) trust since 2007, which aims to generate income from fixed interest securities. It is up 282.3% under his tenure and offers a 9% dividend yield.

CQS chair Christopher Casey thanked Francis for his ‘greatly valued expertise and contribution to the company’s performance over many years’, adding that he has ‘full confidence in the ability of Crayfourd and Watson to manage the company’s investments and deliver outperformance’.

Gold-driven share rally

In its annual report to the end of June which was released today, CQS boasted a 4.6% share return that beat the 4.5% loss from the MSCI World Metals and Mining index.

Since the reporting period ended, however, shares in the trust have soared a further 33.3%, which was primarily driven by its large weighting to gold. Precious metals account for over half (53.5%) of the portfolio, so the 44.6% rally in the gold price to $3,965 has been a tailwind to returns.

While the surge in gold has boosted CYN on the upside, it also leaves it highly exposed to de-ratings.

Since peaking at $4,375 earlier this month, the gold price has fallen 9.4%, dragging CYN’s shares down 13.7% with it. The trust enjoyed a 4.7% premium in September, but that has since fallen to a double-digit discount of 11.9%.