RIT Capital Partners (RCP ) has seen its discount widen to 25% despite its continued attempts to reassure investors through regular updates and share buybacks. 

The Rothschild-backed multi-asset fund published a net asset value gain of 0.4% to £24.09 per share in September despite turmoil in global markets. 

The trust, which has faced scrutiny over the valuations of its private assets, said it has received valuation marks to 30 June for 93% of its private funds, up from 80% last month, while all direct investments are valued. Over September, private investments were flat.

The fund purchased 500,000 shares on behalf of shareholders in the month, following a statement from chair Sir James Leigh-Pemberton in August that the portfolio had ‘compelling’ value.

However, none of this appears to be helping the company which has seen its discount widen since the start of August, when it was at 18%. 

While the £2.7bn trust does not have a comparator benchmark, the update on 16 October noted the S&P 500 fell 4.8% in September and the Stoxx Europe 600 retreated 1.6% as bond yields widened on the back of expectations of higher-for-longer interest rates.

‘Our moderate net equity exposure, our meaningful US dollar position and healthy performance from certain direct stock positions within the quoted equities book helped contribute to NAV performance amidst the challenging market environment,’ the update said.

Japanese holdings performed strongly, as well as ‘value-style stocks’, whereas Chinese and life sciences companies broadly fell. The uncorrelated strategies investments also proved steady in September, with positive contributions from credit strategies as well as macro manager holdings, while gold detracted.

Year to date the company has seen total underlying returns of 1.3%, compared to a sector average of 0.5%, while shareholders are down 11.8%, according to Numis. Over five years it has NAV returns of 35.5% and a sharheholder loss of 0.1%.