Edinburgh (EDIN ) has appointed equity analyst Emily Barnard as deputy fund manager.

Barnard, who joined the £1.3bn UK equity income trust’s fund manager Liontrust as part of its acquisition of Majedie in 2022, will work with Imran Sattar who is due to take over as lead manager when James de Uphaugh retires on 6 February.

Barnard currently works with them on Liontrust’s Global Fundamental team. 

Edinburgh said the new managers would maintain the successful flexible investment approach to its portfolio of up to 50 stocks.

Since de Uphaugh (pictured below with Sattar at a Citywire event in November) and former deputy manager Chris Field took over from Invesco in March 2020, shareholder returns of 86% have dwarfed the FTSE All-Share’s 52%.

Blue-chip companies make up three-quarters of the portfolio, with 17% in medium-sized companies, Morningstar data shows. Top holdings include a 7% weighting to Shell (SHEL), 6% to defence company BAE Systems (BA) and 5% in energy company Centrica (CNA), which constitutes 5% of assets.

While the board chaired by Elisabeth Stheeman has been active buying back stock, the shares continue to trade at a 9% discount to the most recent net asset value of 741p per share.