Rothschild fund is delivering rich returns and now boss Maggie Fanari is eyeing new opportunities in tech and AI pioneers, says Alex Brummer
The quiet gentility of Spencer House, with a splendid 18th-Century facade overlooking London's Green Park, feels far removed from the skyscrapers of the City and Manhattan. Filled with Old Master paintings and family treasures, it is not the kind of place one would expect to be the headquarters of a fund manager, let alone a shrewd investor in Elon Musk's SpaceX, which is limbering up for the biggest stock market float in history.But then there is nothing usual about RIT Capital Partners, formerly known as the Rothschild Investment Trust.It was founded by the late, great fourth Lord Jacob Rothschild in 1971 after a family schism which saw the titular head of the British arm of the financial dynasty break with investment bankers NM Rothschild.Some 55 years on, the fund, which down the decades has delivered rich rewards for shareholders, is run by highly focused, cerebral Canadian Maggie Fanari, with her keen eye for getting in on the ground floor with private technological and artificial intelligence pioneers.At a moment in history when other investment trusts are under siege from American activist shareholder Boaz Weinstein of Saba Capital, the trust, which produced a stellar total shareholder return of 16.9 per cent in 2025, recognised it had to lift its game.'We have undergone a complete transformation,' Fanari says. RIT large: Maggie Fanari leads the ex-Rothschild Investment TrustThis involves getting information to investors more quickly and upgrading the website and disclosures in an annual report which now runs to 137 pages.'We have specifically designed our website to inform shareholders, both existing and prospective, around our private portfolio,' Fanari says of unquoted shares.The fund boss regards openness as essential and makes a point of engaging with investors using podcasts. She is acutely aware that 25 per cent of RIT investors (including this writer) are smaller shareholders and thus will be anxious to be kept informed during a period of extraordinary political and economic turbulence.The trust may yet fall into Saba's crosshairs as its stock market value of just under £3 billion remains at a big discount to the £4.4 billion of assets in its portfolio. Discounts are a key bugbear of Weinstein, who often uses them as a key justification in his campaigns against investment trusts.But Fanari is undeterred, saying: 'We've been looking to tackle the discount through performance. We have a high conviction about the portfolio and bought back 3 per cent of the market cap last year.'Investors will also doubtless be reassured that RIT (unlike the Bank of England) has always maintained a substantial position in gold, which has soared by nearly 50 per cent in value over the past year. Skyward focus: SpaceX's Elon Musk'We ended the year with 5.3 per cent of our portfolio in gold – it acts as a diversifier,' Fanari says.Aside from gold and its SpaceX stake, unusual jewels in RIT's portfolio include Spencer House, a Grade I-listed house and one of London's most prized corporate and social venues.Even for the combative Weinstein, RIT would be a hard nut to crack. It started out as the family investment vehicle for the Rothschild family in Britain and that remains the case.Jacob Rothschild's favoured heir Hannah Rothschild, who sits as a non-executive director, holds 10.3 per cent of the business, the Rothschild Foundation (which funds charities) has a further 11.16 per cent. And Five Arrows, the asset management arm of Rothschild & Co, owns 4.9 per cent.Unpicking all of that would be tricky for an activist investor.That is unless, in the manner of the Schroder family, who recently sold up, the Rothschilds decided enough was enough.The journey of the 46-year-old Fanari to the top job at Britain's most elite fund manager began at the £153 billion Ontario Teachers' Pension Fund, a substantial investor in Britain.She felt an intimate involvement with the fund, as her father, a high school teacher in Canada with a keen interest in politics and markets, is a beneficiary.Fanari first came to know Jacob Rothschild 15 years ago when she found that RIT was often a co-investor in the innovative private companies which the Ontario fund was backing. She was invited to join the RIT board as an independent director in 2019 before taking over as chief executive in 2024.The portfolio Fanari runs seeks 'to capture market upside, while minimising the downside'. So far, it appears to be working. She says: 'We've managed to possess 70 per cent of the upside since inception.'This has been done by investing in a variety of assets including private firms. A £10,000 sum invested at the fund's inception would be worth £410,000 today.Since taking the helm Fanari has been building up the stake in SpaceX, noting that she already had 'a long history' with the rocketry group through her time at the Ontario fund. She says: 'It is the largest position in our private book and in the top 10 positions in our overall portfolio.'Her focus is now turning towards the boom in artificial intelligence, with RIT having sold holdings in established software firms such as South Korea's e-commerce platform Coupang, Microsoft and website creation firm GoDaddy to instead focus on predicted winners from the AI revolution such as Anthropic and Databricks.Keeping up with the latest technology requires Fanari to fly regularly. Her focus recently has been on New York and San Francisco, where she makes six trips a year, while also trying to find time to drop in on her family in Ontario, a connection that continues to inform the way she does business.In her work at the Ontario fund, Fanari says she felt as if she was 'working on behalf of family members'. But now at RIT, it is instead the cash of one of the most esteemed financial dynasties in the world that is in her hands.DIY INVESTING PLATFORMSAJ BellAJ BellEasy investing and ready-made portfoliosHargreaves LansdownHargreaves LansdownFree fund dealing and investment ideasinteractive investorinteractive investorFlat-fee investing from £4.99 per monthFreetradeFreetradeInvesting Isa now free on basic planTrading 212Trading 212Free share dealing and no account feeAffiliate links: If you take out a product This is Money may earn a commission. These deals are chosen by our editorial team, as we think they are worth highlighting. 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