SV Health Managers has served 12-month notice on International Biotechnology Trust (IBT ), saying it wants to focus on its healthcare venture business.

In an unusual development, the board of the £300m investment trust, which SV Health has run for 22 years, said portfolio managers Ailsa Craig and Marek Poszepczynski had ‘expressed their willingness to continue as joint lead managers of the company in a different capacity’.

This raises the prospect of the pair, who oversee the portfolio’s majority listed investments, joining another fund management firm which pitches for the mandate, launching their own boutique, or becoming employees of IBT which could become a self-managed fund.

Alternatively, the board could look for a new fund management group entirely or seek a merger with a rival. 

In a statement, IBT chair Kate Cornish-Bowden mentioned none of these options but said she would consult with the trust’s largest shareholders and update investors with specific proposals in due course. According to Refinitiv data, outside the private investors who hold over 12% through stock broker Hargreaves Lansdown, the biggest holders are wealth managers Charles Stanley and Brewin Dolphin and local authority pension funds Border to Coast and South Yorkshire.

Cornish-Bowden thanked SV Health for its ‘successful management’ of IBT which over 10 years has generated a 339% total return for shareholders, the best in its sector. The 4%-yielder has the highest share price rating in the group, standing on a small discount of 2% last week.

Dame Kate Bingham, managing partner of SV Health who headed the UK’s vaccine taskforce in the pandemic, explained: ‘SV Health is now managing $2.2bn of private healthcare assets across its group and the time has come for us to focus on these core strategies.

‘We will be working with the board of IBT to ensure a smooth transition over the coming months and look forward to a continued relationship with IBT as an investor in SV Health’s venture and crossover funds.’ IBT is currently 8% invested in venture capital funds overseen by Bingham.

The board clarified that SV Health will be eligible for performance fees up to February next year. These are capped at 4.99% of net asset value. 

It is rare for portfolio managers to voluntarily resign from investment company mandates, although Terry Smith’s Fundsmith quit Fundsmith Emerging Equities Trust last September, leading to its decision to wind up.

Numis Securities, IBT’s broker, said Craig and Marek had delivered ‘solid’ performance since taking on the trust nearly two years ago after the departure of Carl Harald Janson, with underlying net asset value (NAV) up 3.2% against a 0.2% fall in the Nasdaq Biotechnology index.

In the past three months the shares, up 1% to 728p today, have rallied over 10%, while the Nasdaq benchmark has fallen almost 4%. NAV has risen 4% with an unquoted holding added 1% this month, following the positive impact of Amgen’s takeover of Horizon Therapeutics and portfolio holding Novocure achieving success in trials of its lung cancer treatment.