LK Hyman
25 Apr 2015
Re: Alliance Trust responds to Elliott A... Sansione,"Alliance is, and always has been, a dull, boring trust run by dull, boring people"I say, m8! How very dare you! Say what you like about Katherine Garrett-Cox (not Garret-Fox, sorry!) but dull and boring she ain't. She reminds me of that other bird ... you know the one I mean, Supermum ... ran a fund ... Nicola Horlick, that's the one.Did well for a bit, then blew up spectacularly over summat ... can't remember what ... Madoff, was it? I'd like to see them two go mano a mano (stock picking I mean).LKH on the flybridge
Wynford2
25 Apr 2015
Re: Alliance Trust responds to Elliott A... Following the emotional bust up in Sept 2014 when KG-C kicked out Ilario di Bon for Michaelis and Clements, I would suggest ATST is anything but “safe and boring”.Investment criteria is now described in the Annual report as:“Sustainable development and responsible businesses practice are core to our process. Our process identifies companies with strong sustainability and ESG credentials and robust business fundamentals… .. For each sector, the investment team identifies material environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors which affect financial prospects. Companies are assessed against sector-relevant factors. Longer term value drivers are identified through exposure to four key themes; Climate Change, Quality of Life,Sustainable Consumption and Resilience.”I have a rule not to put my savings into anything I don’t understand, and I certainly don’t follow this gobbledygook, so also after 25+ years I’m selling up. Also worth noting, is that the previous raiders forced the board into buy backs which the board had been dead against, and“Since the introduction of our flexible buyback policy in 2011 the Company has bought back and cancelled 16.3% of its shares at a cost of £392m” They have had to partially fill this gap with £100m of leverage at 4.28% - increasing the risk/return ratio. If they react to raiders again then a tender offer is on the cards, followed by more leverage.Incidentally, also from the annual report:“In 2014 we voted at 98 company meetings, For 36 of these meetings (34%) we voted against, withheld or abstained on one or more resolutions. These votes related to concerns about matters including: board and committee independence and effectiveness; .. ..; excessive or opaque remuneration arrangements;”What goes around, comes around.
Ru 8746
24 Apr 2015
Re: Alliance Trust responds to Elliott A... I assume I'm too late to vote against Elliott's short-term proposals if I buy a lump today?
trader jack
23 Apr 2015
Re: Alliance Trust responds to Elliott A... "Alliance is, and always has been, a dull, boring trust run by dull, boring people and, as a self managed fund, a total anacronism in this day and age. "Sansione, I think the word you are looking for is "safe" or about as safe can be. Little of excitement happens, they don't try to set the world alight, and very occasionally as now, someone comes along to ruffle their feathers in their own selfish interests and not necessarily in the interests of the ordinary shareholder.If you decided at point in the past to buy Alliance, it was for one main reason: it was safe! You will have received dividends along the way, they may not have set the world alight but they were steady and increasing. Of course ATST could have performed better over the last five years, it has narrowed the discount a little, the shares reached their best ever level earlier this month.As for the ever fragrant KGC, well she is in charge and if enough sharehol;ders are dissatisfied with her performance she can be voted out of office at an AGM or EGM. Perhaps Elliotts are causing her to look closely at the results, the discount and possibly the overall performance to see how they can be bettered.I have been with Alliance for over 25 years and am well pleased with the returns I have received. Yes I could have chosen Witan or some other IT all those years ago and I may have seen greater returns, I could also have seen much poorer returns or possibly seen a loss of capital.Elliotts aren't the answer, the ordinary shareholder will be the loser if they win the vote.p.s. ITDYA how do you get to have dinner with KGC or were you just dreaming? I have managed to share a coffee with her at shareholder meeting.
sansione
23 Apr 2015
Re: Alliance Trust responds to Elliott A... I neither manage nor sell index tracking funds nor would I consider buying shares in anything resembling such products. I am a private investor that invests only in investment trusts. However, the trusts that I own are run by managers with proven long term track records of both relative ( to benchmarks and peers ) and absolute returns. They are not difficult to find on ( currently ) 5% to 10% discounts. Alliance is, and always has been, a dull, boring trust run by dull, boring people and, as a self managed fund, a total anacronism in this day and age.
