Charity fears draft EU law on private equity

The Wellcome Trust’s chief investment officer said that a draft European law on private equity and hedge funds would weaken Britain’s biggest charity, which made £580m of gains on its £13bn investment portfolio in the year to September 2009.

Danny Truell told the Financial Times that half the Wellcome Trust’s portfolio – which finances medical research in the UK and poor countries around the world – was invested in hedge funds and private equity funds based outside the European Union.