alandwd
20 Dec 2016
Re: Sell time I switched to UK Smaller companies Trusts, plenty of those on very good discounts right now..I can't believe ATS, they choose today to send a message that their admin fees are going up to £120 a year. They try to offset it with 4 free trades a year, but if you don't trade that often, your fees just went up.
trader jack
16 Dec 2016
Re: Sell time Alliance Trust to sell investment management arm to Liontrust Major strategic shift by Dundee-based financial services groupby: Lauren Fedor and Chris Newlands in LondonAlliance Trust has agreed to sell its investment management arm to fund manager Liontrust Asset Management for £30m, part of a strategic shift that will see the Dundee-based financial services group outsource management of its £3.6bn of equity investments to other investment firms. The two groups said on Thursday that Liontrust would snap up the entire issued share capital of Alliance Trust Investments, a deal that is expected to increase Liontrust’s assets under management by around £2.3bn, to £8bn.The companies said they expect the acquisition to be finalised in April of next year. Once the deal is complete, around 50 members of the ATI investment team, based in London and Edinburgh, and 11 investment funds will become part of Liontrust. John Ions, chief executive of Liontrust, said ATI would be “an excellent addition” to his group.“They are very experienced, have a clear and robust investment process and have shown that sustainable investment can provide strong investment returns as well as meeting investors’ values,” he said.Shares in London-listed Liontrust rose more than 3 per cent to 359p per share on Thursday morning. Shares in Alliance Trust, a FTSE 250 company, were up 1.7 per cent, at 607p per share.The two companies announced the sale as Alliance revealed plans for a major strategic overhaul that will see it outsource responsibility for investing its equity portfolio from ATI to eight separate investment managers. Willis Towers Watson, the London-based investment group, will be the overall investment manager.“The board believes that this differentiated investment approach builds on the best of Alliance Trust’s long heritage of innovation and will increase the likelihood of delivering consistently improved performance,” the company said.Richard Troue, an analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said it was “encouraging to see the board take further steps to improve performance, but it is a shame it has taken so long to get this far”. “As always, the proof of the pudding will be in the eating and the success of the strategic review will be measured by the trust’s performance in the coming years,” he added. The structural shake-up follows a strategic review that was initiated in May amid pressure from shareholders including Elliott Advisors, the US activist investor.As the largest shareholder in Alliance Trust, Elliott controls around 10.3 per cent of the company’s shares. Elliott targeted Alliance last year, criticising the investment group’s poor performance, high costs and lossmaking subsidiaries, including ATI and the online trading platform Alliance Trust Savings. Alliance is retaining the ATS business, which employs more than 200 people in Dundee and Edinburgh. In April 2015, Elliott led a shareholder revolt over the high pay of the company’s then-chief executive, Katherine Garrett-Cox, which had doubled in five years, to £1.4m. Alliance agreed to appoint two of three independent directors nominated by Elliott, before ousting Ms Garrett-Cox earlier this year. Karin Forseke, who had been chairman since 2012, stepped down last November amid the management reshuffle. Lord Smith of Kelvin, a former chief executive of Morgan Grenfell Asset Management, was brought in as chairman in January to help lead a turnround.Over the summer, investors welcomed reports that rival RIT Capital Partners, the investment trust of financier Jacob Rothschild, was considering a merger with Alliance that would have created a publicly-listed company with a market value of more than £5bn. However, in June, RIT said it had decided to walk away from the potential tie-up despite “constructive discussions”.Analysts speculated that jobs could be cut as a result of Alliance’s deal. Jason Hollands, managing director of Tilney Bestinvest, an inves
alandwd
15 Dec 2016
Sell time ATS announced today a move to a trendier investment philosophy and a commitment to, wait for it, low discounts. As an international general trust with a discount of 9%, it was already low enough for me. I have therefore sold up and moved the proceeds into trusts with much better discounts. They've had a good run last few years (partly due to the US holdings and favourable exchange rate movements), but the size of the trust does not lend itself well to higher fees and lower discounts, smaller investors can definitely find better value elsewhere.
alandwd
02 Nov 2016
Re: Discount. That's 8ish enough for me and definitely a sell signal for this trust. Well done on exiting some. This 25% pension lump sum better still exist when I get to 55.
alandwd
31 Oct 2016
Re: Discount. I've not been watching this part of my portfolio in a while. If I had, I'd have probably sold when the discount really narrowed in April and I guess that would have been a mistake. Certainly this kind of discount feels quite low. I can understand the deal for RIT though, grabbing some of the 10% discount on 3.6bn worth of assets would be a nice deal!If it goes down to about 8 again, I'll sell.
trader jack
27 Aug 2016
Re: Rothschild makes move to acquire ATS In today's Telegraph Money section there is an article from broker Stifel advising clients to sell their RIT shareholdings. and lowering its rating from "neutral" to "negative"Their thoughts are that RITt has risen from a discount to a premium recently and its shares have shown a 42pc increase over 5 years and 17 percent over the last 12 months. According to my own amarteurish calculations ATST shares have risen by 64.23percent over the last 5 years and by 22percent over the last 12 months.A somewhat better preformance methinks.,Unfortunately I cannot seem to find a link from the Telegraph .that would allow me to to copy it to here.Good weekend allTJ
cimbom
11 Aug 2016
Re: Rothschild makes move to acquire ATS At long last, ATS announced half year profits of £400,000... truth emerges.... ATS is an invaluable asset for Alliance Trust.
trader jack
29 Jun 2016
Re: All systems down 11:46 Back on-line!
trader jack
29 Jun 2016
All systems down Website not available therefore no opportunities to deal!General enquiries option on telephone just goes dead after being "transferred."Dealing team struggling but at least they were able to tell me what the problems were and both their IT team and theit 3rd Pary provider were working to resolve problem.I hope it is a little more technical than the 13amp fuse on a 3 pin plug.................or 10p in the meter.TJ
Graham Morrice
24 Jun 2016
Re: The Private Investor If the ATS computer system is slow or not working for any reason (eg BT) I phone the Alliance Trust switchboard, who immediately put me through to the Dealing Desk. They have always carried out my instructions straight away.
Ben Alligin
24 Jun 2016
Re: The Private Investor Same problem here. I expect their system has been overwhelmed with people wanting to trade after the referendum result. I'm considering moving to HL.
trader jack
24 Jun 2016
The Private Investor I have been trying since the opening of trade today to get onto the Alliance website to purchase shares in ATST and other companies, only in the last 30 minutes have I been able to get onto the dealing page and actually get prices, although it has taken 3 - 4 minutes between the request and the actual price appearing on screen! ATST itself is now being quoted higher than yesterday's close despite market seemingly down 4 3/4 percent as I write!!I actually managed to get onto dealing screen for ATST at about 8:10AM and it would not give me a price at which I could purchase shares in ATST! Kept telling ,me to telephone!!!Are the small investors like myself really welcome? I am having many problems with Alliance since they introduced their new higher charges monthly in May!!!I am not impressed.
In the dark yet again
23 Jun 2016
Re: Rothschild makes move to acquire ATS LKH,The old 7 year rule is still god but be careful; remember it's a pension so you pay tax when you withdraw. Withdraw the lot in one hit and (depending on size) that could attract a big chunk of tax even if 25% is free. Depends on your own circumstances but if you are already getting a big wedge from RDS then whatever you withdraw will get hammered especially if 40% or more kicks in, then maybe you don't life for 7 more, then the heirs get hammered again. Not sure your plan holds water but it does depend on individual circumstances.Me, I'll have no 'earned' income (unless I relent and get a job which, currently, is not something I wish to think about) at least until I'm 60 when a couple of old DB schemes would kick in. Plan currently is to let them run until I'm 59 and 9 months then get a lump sum transfer into the SIPP. If they have to calculate the transfer value on a joint life, RPI indexed annuity rate then I'll be able to use that to generate a much bigger income than the pension/annuity would pay - famous last words but I can take a little risk so it should be just about impossible to miss with annuity rates this low.In the meantime I'll have a full personal income tax allowance otherwise unused so pull £14,666 each year, £3,666 being 25% tax free, £11,000 taxable at my margin rate of zero. Adjust those numbers to reflect the personal allowance in place at the time.Withdrawals not a simple as an ISA; withdrawals are deemed as income so (I'm guessing, not heard back yet) subject to PAYE, i.e. they'd got to put me on the pension 'payroll', all cost and admin overhead... but yes, the fees do sound a little high for something relatively simple. On the bright side it's a fraction of what some of the 'traditional' pension providers are trying to charge - I heard of the Pru trying to hit one punter with a £2,000 fee for pulling £20,000.... apparently now with the Financial Ombudsman and the Pru feeling a bit sheepish.Regards,ITDYA
Bally Hopefull
11 Jun 2016
Re: Rothschild makes move to acquire ATS But how long will we live.. cristal ball and all that
LK Hyman
10 Jun 2016
Re: Rothschild makes move to acquire ATS ITDYA,"If you died after 75 they still get it but they have to pay tax at their marginal rate."Yes, that clarifies the situation nicely. It makes me think that the sensible thing to do, in order not to lose the benefit of the 25% tax free lump sum that one can take from one's pension is to cash it in more than seven years before one carks it and hand that over to the heirs, so that they get it free of IHT. The punter has to pay income tax on the other 75% but that's better than the heirs paying income tax on 100% if one just leaves it with YouInvest beyond age 75.Those withdrawal fees look pretty iniquitous to me! Why isn't it like an Isa where withdrawals are more or less free, eh?When/if I cash in my and Mrs LKH's Sipp I'd be inclined to take the whole lot out in one go, pay the income tax on the 75% and funnel the net proceeds into Isas, or give them to the heirs depending on our need for klebbies at the time.This is a cheerful subject!LKH on the flybridge
