ShareSoc launches Alliance Trust action group

twitter-iconfacebook-iconlinkedin-iconmail-iconprint-icon
Search supported by
ShareSoc launches Alliance Trust action group

ShareSoc has been urged by its members to set up an action group to lobby the Alliance Trust board after its recent battle with activist shareholder Elliott Advisors.

The company, an independent business which supports private investors, said it had been “encouraged by a number of private investors” to support a shareholder action group to represent their interests in relation to Alliance Trust.

“Many investors still have concerns about the strategy of the company and about some aspects of its operations,” ShareSoc said.

It said a shareholder action group had been launched and investors could register their interest on its website.

In launching the group, ShareSoc has set out what it sees as remaining issues which need to be tackled.

These include a reorganisation of the board to make it “totally non-executive” like with the majority of investment trusts and a “reorientation away from expansion and a re-focussing of management’s attention on to the performance of the investment trust”.

It also echoed one of Elliott Advisors’ contentions about the subsidiaries Alliance Trust Savings, the platform, and Alliance Trust Investments, the asset manager.

ShareSoc said ATS should be sold to a “larger competitor” and that ATI should be “divested or wound down to eliminate a loss making activity and remove the risks being borne by Alliance Trust’s shareholders”.

It also claimed the fact Alliance Trust has offices in Dundee, Edinburgh and London meant costs could be reduced.

The trust recently avoided a potential defeat at its annual general meeting last month when it agreed a deal at the 11th hour with Elliott.

The agreement meant two of the three non-executive directors proposed by Elliott - Anthony Brooke and Rory Macnamara - were added to the board.

Elliott agreed not to petition the trust until after the trust’s 2016 annual general meeting at the earliest to give the trust time to implement potential changes.