Alliance Trust looks to sell savings arm with talks under way
Wealth manager Alliance Trust is mulling a sale of its savings arm, and is in talks with interested parties.
The Dundee-based investment trust, which dates back to 1888, made the announcement as it unveiled its results for the six months to 30 June, a period of “steady progress”.
The FTSE 250 firm said its total shareholder return came in at 1.1 per cent, and the net asset value (nav) total return at 2.9 per cent, outstripping the MSCI All Country World Index (ACWI) total return of 2.3 per cent.
Alliance Trust Savings swung to a profit of £23,000 from a £1.5 million loss 12 months previously. Chairman Lord Smith of Kelvin said: “We have received a number of expressions of interest in ATS and are currently considering whether a change of ownership would be in the interests of Alliance Trust shareholders and ATS customers and staff.”
He added that talks “are at an early stage and there can be no certainty that [our] board of will decide to sell ATS.”
A spokeswoman for the trust echoed comments by Smith that all expressions of interest want to “grow or maintain” ATS’S presence in Dundee but she was unable to give more details on the likes of price and timing.
Alliance Trust in April 2017 hired Willis Towers Watson as investment manager, and since then the equity portfolio has delivered a total return of 12.9 per cent compared to the benchmark of 10.1 per cent.