Alliance Trust has said the reorganisation of its equity team is likely to save it £2m per year after head of equities Ilario di Bon and four other members of the team left.
The trust’s head of equities Mr di Bon left last month to “pursue other opportunities” and he was replaced in the role by Peter Michaelis, who will report to chief executive and chief investment officer Katherine Garrett-Cox.
Simon Clements has taken on the responsibility for the management of Alliance Trust’s equity portfolio.
In the trust’s interim management statement for the three months to September 30, Alliance Trust said the reorganisation had resulted in five people leaving.
“As a consequence of these changes, we have rationalised the resourcing of the equity team and five members of the team have since left the group,” it said.
“We expect annualised cost savings of £2m as a result.”
Elsewhere, the trust delivered a share price total return of 2.1 per cent for the third quarter, which management said was a “solid performance” given the “context of increasing market uncertainty driven by geopolitical developments and continuing macroeconomic concerns in key markets”.
The trust’s share price performance is also now ranked second quartile in three, four and five years compared to global trust peers, the group said.
Alliance Trust, which owns fund manager Alliance Trust Investments (ATI) and platform Alliance Trust Savings (ATS), said it bought back 2.85m shares in the period in a bid to keep the discount its shares trade at compared to the net value of its assets in check.
“The cum income discount traded in a wider than normal range reaching a high of 14.5 per cent in the lead up to the Scottish referendum vote, followed by a post vote low of 11.8 per cent, finishing the period at 12.5 per cent,” the results said.
“This widening of the discount ahead of the vote was consistent with many other Scottish incorporated investment trusts.”
The platform ATS saw assets under administration rise by 3.4 per cent to £6.1bn in the quarter.
“ATS’s business is expected to benefit from substantial growth on the back of pensions and Isa reforms and the second part of the Retail Distribution Review, given that ATS’s flat fee charging structure is particularly attractive to high balance accounts,” the statement said.
