Appointment of new managers

Witan Investment Trust PLC
29 April 2008



WITAN INVESTMENT TRUST PLC

29 APRIL 2008



                           WITAN INVESTMENT TRUST PLC


                  WITAN APPOINTS NEW UK AND EUROPEAN MANAGERS


The Board of Witan Investment Trust plc has awarded £75m to both Artemis
Investment Management Limited and Marathon Asset Management LLP to run active UK
equity mandates on its behalf.  In addition, Paris-based Varenne Capital
Managers will run a new £30m European mandate to complement the incumbent
European manager, Wellington.


At its recent strategic review, the Board recognised that there was scope within
its risk budget to add alpha to the Trust's portfolio through the appointment of
active UK managers.  As a result, the percentage of the Trust's assets managed
on an enhanced index basis by Henderson Global Investors will decrease.
Nonetheless, since October 2004 the Trust has benefited from strong performance
from this mandate and Henderson Global Investors will continue to run £195m in
UK equities on an enhanced index basis.  This development will not affect either
the UK Smaller Companies or US Equity mandates, both run by Henderson Global
Investors.


New UK managers

Artemis will manage a segregated portfolio mirroring the Artemis UK Special
Situations Fund run by Derek Stuart.  Stuart has an excellent track-record of
out-performance achieved by exploiting market inefficiencies with an absolute
return mentality.  London-based Marathon employs a contrarian, 'capital cycle'
approach to investment and typically takes a long-term view on individual
holdings.  Founding partner Neil Ostrer will manage a 40 to 50 stock segregated
portfolio to mirror the Marathon UK equity product.


New European manager

Varenne Capital Partners employs a private equity style to investing in public
equity.  It will run a highly focused segregated portfolio of 10 to 15 stocks
for Witan along identical terms to its Varenne Active Value Fund.  Varenne's
appointment will also address the Trust's European underweighting relative to
benchmark.


Jim Horsburgh, Chief Executive Officer of Witan Investment Trust, said:

'These appointments add high quality investment expertise to Witan's manager
line up.  Artemis and Marathon have different approaches, both of which have
proved very successful in the past. Artemis is a strong retail name while
Marathon enjoys a considerable reputation in the global institutional
marketplace.  Witan investors should benefit from this more active approach in
the UK particularly in these volatile markets where stock picking is key.
Varenne is an example of the type of manager closed-ended funds like to employ.
They are deep value and invest with conviction and patience offering the chance
for significant out-performance over time.  Witan will continue to evolve as an
investment proposition as it develops its best of breed approach offering
shareholders exposure to talented managers, many of who are normally
inaccessible to the UK retail investor.'


                                    - ENDS -



For further information please contact:


James Budden                    OR      Eleanor Mitchell / Hugo Mortimer-Harvey
Marketing Director                      quill communications
Witan Investment Trust plc              Tel: [phone] 7758 2234
Tel: [phone]                      [e-mail]
[e-mail]                [e-mail]





NOTES:

Witan Investment Trust Manager Team


Equity mandate          Manager                                 Based in             % portfolio
Global                  Thomas White                            Chicago, USA                 10
Global                  MFS Investment Management               Boston, USA                  10
Global                  Southeastern Investment Management      Memphis, USA                 14
UK                      Artemis Investment Management           London, UK                   7
UK                      Marathon Asset Management               London, UK                   7
UK Mainstream           Henderson Global Investors              London, UK                   16
UK Smaller Companies    Henderson Global Investors              London, UK                   5
European ex UK          Wellington Management                   Boston, USA                  8
European                Varenne Capital Partners                Paris, France                3
North American          Henderson Global Investors              London, UK                   6
Japanese                Brandes Investment Partners             San Diego, USA               6
Asia ex Japan           Comgest                                 Paris, France                6
Australia               Orbis                                   Sydney, Australia            2





Artemis Investment Management

Established in 1997, Artemis Investment Management Limited is a dedicated
investment management house specialising in active equity management.  As at 
31/12/07 Artemis managed £16.5bn on behalf of a range of retail and
institutional clients.  The company is owned by ABN Amro (68%) and its employees
(32%).

Artemis' strengths lie in the focus of its fund managers on stocks and markets.
Its fund managers' interests are closely aligned with both those of the company
and its clients. They also typically have an equity stake in the business and
all fund managers must invest in the funds they manage.

Witan's portfolio is a segregated mirror of Derek Stuart's £2bn UK Special
Situations Fund launched in 2001 - a contrarian fund that aims to outperform the
FTSE All-Share Index by 3% per annum.  This fund seeks to exploit market
inefficiencies, with an absolute return mindset, in order to generate maximum
returns.  It is a stock-picking fund that aims to achieve long-term capital
growth by focusing on stocks that are out of favour, have turnaround potential
or are special situations.  These stocks offer high equity gearing to recovery.
Artemis forms a longer-term assessment of the strengths of a company, paying
particular attention to those that have experienced share price weakness where
the business franchise remains intact.  Opportunities for self-help, be it cost
rationalisation, financial restructuring and management change are consequently
attractively valued.  Typically the fund holds between 70 and 100 stocks.

It is this flexible approach recognising both growth and value that has enabled
it to consistently identify companies that are likely to be re-rated across all
economic cycles.


Performance: calendar year total returns (source: Artemis)

                             Artemis                         FTSE All-Share

2007                           5.46                               5.32
2006                          20.30                               16.75
2005                          25.86                               22.04
2004                          19.59                               12.84
2003                          37.45                               20.67
2002                          -9.47                              -22.67
2001                           0.03                              -13.28



Marathon Asset Management

Marathon Asset Management was founded in 1986 and is totally independent,
managing some £20bn of institutional client assets.  At the heart of Marathon's
investment philosophy is the 'capital cycle' approach to investment. This is
based on the idea that the prospect of high returns will attract excessive
capital (and hence competition), and vice versa. In addition, the assessment of
management and how they respond to the forces of the capital cycle is critical
to the investment outcome.  The investment philosophy is intrinsically
contrarian.  Given the long-term nature of the capital cycle, Marathon's
investment ideas generally require long gestation periods and therefore by
industry standards, long stock holding periods.

Marathon is managing a 40 to 50 stock segregated portfolio for Witan Investment
Trust which is a mirror of its UK Equity product established in its current form
in 2001.  This is headed up by one of its founding partners, Neil Ostrer, the
lead manager responsible for Marathon's UK equity strategy.

Performance: calendar year total returns (source: Marathon)

                             Marathon                        FTSE All-Share

2007                          12.61                               5.32
2006                          19.53                               16.75
2005                          21.50                               22.04
2004                          16.78                               12.84
2003                          27.87                               20.67
2002                          -19.95                             -22.67
2001                          -6.82                              -13.28



Varenne Capital Partners

Varenne Capital Partners invests internationally in significantly undervalued
equity and other listed securities.  Varenne was established in 2003 and is a
Paris-based boutique with four founding partners.  It currently manages some
£80m on behalf of institutional clients.

Research is entirely fact-based, proprietary and independent.  Valuation is
derived from fundamental analysis and field investigation in a manner that is
similar to private equity due diligences.  Varenne has adopted a 'brokers are
not welcome' policy and does not rely on third party research for its investment
activity.  In-depth financial, risk and business analysis is carried out first
hand by the managers after an initial selection is made through quantitative and
qualitative screenings.

As deep value investors, the managers at Varenne focus on companies with good to
excellent economic characteristics, i.e. a measurable, sustainable competitive
advantage delivering long-term above average returns on capital employed, that
trade at discount of at least 45% to their Intrinsic Value Estimates.  Varenne
Capital Partners avoids investing in highly cyclical, capacity, commodity or
technology businesses.

Previous to managing its own funds Varenne Capital Partners has advised La
Compagnie 1818, Private Banking arm of the French CDC/Natixis banking group, in
the management of the Varenne Value Fund with an objective to provide consistent
long-term capital appreciation with limited volatility and low correlation to
the stock markets.

Varenne is managing a segregated portfolio for Witan which mirrors the Varenne
Active Value Fund.  The Pan-European fund is highly focussed and will only
contain between 10 -15 stocks at a time.


Performance: calendar year total returns (source: Varenne)

                     Varenne Capital Partners                  MSCI Europe

2007                          10.35                               1.32
2006                          24.64                               15.28
2005                          15.83                               22.17
2004                          27.86                               7.86
2003                          71.11                               19.17




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