Alliance Trust makes pledge to achieve one third female board

Lord Smith of Kelvin

Chairman Lord Smith of Kelvin made the commitment in front of a packed Apex City Quay Hotel in Dundee’s regenerated docklands, telling those assembled that the statutory composition would be in place at the FTSE250 company by the end of 2020.

Lord Kelvin said the relatively short space of time to achieve the desired board make-up would require the appointment of additional directors.

Ahead of yesterday’s AGM, the Trust announced a dividend a dividend of 3.49 pence per share on Monday, July 1st, representing a dividend yield of 0.45 per cent.

Craig Baker, chief investment officer for Willis Towers Watson, the firm appointed to oversee the trust’s multibillion-pound portfolio two years ago, said he had taken Alliance Trust back to its traditional identity as an equity investment trust.

He said: “This is now a new beast that is going to be 100 per cent an equity investment trust. It’s really quite innovative with the 20 stock and multi-manager approach that still looks very different from the benchmark that gives us the potential to significantly outperform.

“But that won’t be done through a specific style, which is unusual in the market.

“It won’t be driven by value or growth or large capital but should do well in most market conditions, although nothing does well in every single market condition.

“With the single manager approach there will be periods of years where a manager does very well, but years where he does very badly. Lord Smith of Kelvin talking at the AGM.

“This should take that out, so it is an ideal core holding, insofar that it will be delivering consistently, and that it manages to do that at relatively low cost.”

Trust spokesman Mark Atkinson said the FTSE250 company’s simplification process to move entirely to holdings in equities was almost complete.

He said: “We are now in sight of the finishing line of a three- year simplification project that will deliver better returns for our investors.

“We have a simplified, fully-focused trust which will hopefully deliver better returns to our shareholders in the long run, rather than what we had previously, which was a bit of a hodge-podge of different asset classes.”

Addressing the ongoing effects of Brexit, Mr Atkinson added: “Operationally, we don’t have any issues and, from an investment perspective, it’s particularly important to be diversifying. We are well insulated from any effects from Brexit.”