Fund managers resign from high-flying investment trusts
Two investment trusts, which have seen their performances soar over one and three years, have been rocked by the sudden departure of the fund managers who run both portfolios.
9th March 2026 13:00
by Dave Baxter from interactive investor
The fund managers at the helm of two outperforming commodity investment trusts, CQS Natural Resources G&I Ord (LSE:CYN) and Golden Prospect Precious Metal Ord (LSE:GPM), have tendered their resignations.
Keith Watson and Robert Crayfourd, who run the portfolios for both trusts, have resigned from their roles at investment manager CQS and will serve their three-month periods.
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The board of CYN said it was “considering a number of options at its disposal to ensure a smooth and sustainable transition in the best interests of our shareholders”, with further updates due, while GPM has served notice on the investment manager, although the notice period does stretch to 12 months.
| Both trusts have enjoyed very strong recent performance | |||
| Fund/sector | One-year share price total return | Five-year | 10-year |
| Golden Prospect Precious Metals | 138.1 | 122.2 | 281 |
| CQS Natural Resources Growth & Income | 117.5 | 258.3 | 582.1 |
| AIC Commodities and Natural Resources sector average | 90.7 | 140.7 | 350 |
Source: FE Analytics, as at 06/03/2026. Past performance is not a guide to future performance.
Neither of these funds are especially big, with CYN on a market capitalisation of just £164 million and GPM on around £140 million.
But they have delivered huge gains amid the gold price rally of the last two years, with shares in Golden Prospect Precious Metals returning almost 140% over 12 months alone. Around half the CYN portfolio is in precious metals.
As Peel Hunt analyst Anthony Leadham put it: “This is an unhelpful development for both CYN and GPM and the boards are going to have to move decisively to prevent this manager change from impacting the share price ratings.”
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CYN shares traded on a roughly 9% share price discount to net asset value (NAV) and a dividend yield of 7.2% at the time of writing, with GPM on a 21.4% discount.
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