Alliance Trust’s approach to investment will remain unchanged despite undergoing a significant reshuffle on its equity team.
According to a statement made to the London Stock Exchange, five members of Alliance Trust’s equity team have left the group over the past few weeks. This includes the head of equities, Ilario de Bon, who left to “pursue other opportunities”.
He has been replaced by Peter Michaelis while Simon Clements, a global equities investment manager with Alliance Trust, has taken on responsibility for the trust’s equity portfolio and created a single equity team.
As a result of the departures and reshuffle, the board has said it expects Alliance Trust will make £2m of savings.
Its interim management statement for the three months to 30 September said: “The trust will continue to be an unconstrained global trust, and the thematic investment approach remains unchanged.
| As at 30 Sept 2014 | % increase / (decrease) in Q3 | % increase / (decrease) YTD |
AUA (£m) | £6,121m | 3.4% | 13.8% |
No. of Accounts | 73,442 | (0.1%) | (3.0%) |
“It will be managed on a high-conviction, bottom-up, stock-picking basis, with consideration of environmental, social and governance factors forming an integral part of the investment process.”
“The trust remains committed to investing for the long term to match the investment horizon of our predominantly private shareholder base more closely and deliver a combination of capital growth and a consistently rising dividend.”
The trust’s total shareholder return for the third quarter of 2014 was 2.1 per cent.
Listed on the London Stock Exchange, Alliance Trust was founded in 1888 by the directors of the Dundee Mortgage and Trust Ltd and the Dundee Investment Company.
The investment trust has two subsidiary businesses, Alliance Trust Savings and Alliance Trust Investments. The stock market statement said Alliance Trust Savings was expected to benefit from substantial growth on the back of pensions and Isa reforms and the second part of the retail distribution review.
Alliance Trust Savings has more than £6.1bn in assets under administration and Alliance Trust Investments manages £2.3bn.
Adviser view
Desmond O’Driscoll, financial planner for London-based Lighthouse Financial Initiatives, said: “There has been some movement at ATS, and there is some uncertainty, so it is not something we are recommending at the moment.
“But we will keep an eye on it. The trust’s platform of operations is pretty much the only mainstream one that operates on a flat-charge basis, which, in my book, is the way to go.”
