give the dog a bone
31 May 2016
Re: Rothschild makes move to acquire ATS Investment trust shares being at a discount is normal, not strange.totally agree that it is not strange for ITs to trade at a discount but I would contend that it is strange to be paying excessive millions in rewards for p..spoor performance of so called investment managers who spent more time at the hairdressers and preening themselves as they practiced to accept awards. the ONLY thing saving this coy has been the arrival of the Americans. They have narrowed the Discount to just over 11% after todays rise....all means sell assets - if it means this drives the price down them write covered calls and generate some income for the funds...MAN (EMG) is another plc outfit that couldn't allocated funds to save their reputations yet think they have models and algorithms that stand up when it is all hocus pocus.
Ben Alligin
31 May 2016
Re: Rothschild makes move to acquire ATS Investment trust shares being at a discount is normal, not strange.Alliance Trust's "aim is to deliver strong and sustainable investment performance for our shareholders over the longer term. We may invest in a range of assets.... we would concentrate on global equities to generate capital growth and dividend income".Obviously, they are not going to be selling lots of shares and putting the money in the bank. Anyway, it's not easy to suddenly sell millions or billions of pounds worth of shares, as you're unlikely to get the best price.Peoiple invest in Alliance Trust to get a fairly low-risk exposure to global equities for the long term - not to make a quick buck or to have investments held in cash.
Ben Alligin
31 May 2016
RIT Capital makes merger approach to Alliance Trust Alliance Trust reveals strategic review as it confirms RIT Capital Partners’ merger approach to create £5 billion global investment giant.RIT Capital Partners (RCP ), the investment trust chaired by Lord Jacob Rothschild (pictured), has made an informal merger approach to Alliance Trust, its beleaguered global rival.Alliance Trust (ATST ) has confirmed the unsolicited approach and revealed that it has begun a strategic review to explore all options that could benefit its shareholders. Its shares jumped over 15p, or 3%, to 524p in early trading. RIT's retreated 24p or 1.5% to £15.94p.The development comes shortly after the expiry of a 12-month truce agreed between the 128-year-old trust and its largest shareholder, Elliott Advisors.The US hedge fund owns 16% of Alliance and has forced the Dundee-based company to overhaul its board, making its directors fully independent under Lord Smith Kelvin, and sack its former chief executive Katharine Garrett-Cox.A merger between the two would create the UK’s biggest global investment trust with a market value of over £5 billion, far ahead of the current leader, Scottish Mortgage Trust (SMT), which is worth £3.4 billion.It would also likely include the sale of Alliance Trust Savings, Alliance Trust’s investment platform popular with private investors, and its fund management arm, Alliance Trust Investments.- See more at: [link]
give the dog a bone
31 May 2016
Re: Rothschild makes move to acquire ATS Well done Rothschild and Elliotts, strange that the quoted price remains at a discount - if the NAV of the assets is 560p why does the Board not flog the underlying shares and hold cash ?
foglight
31 May 2016
Re: Rothschild makes move to acquire ATS I bought shares in Alliance in early 2015 on the back of RCP buying shares.From memory I think they held 2%. At the time considerable pressure was being applied by Elliot who subsequently have succeeded in gaining board representation. Elliot may wish to take a profit on their substantial stake which may have spurred on this RCP approach. Asset value is about 560p per share so we may see the shares go to a premium. It will be interesting to see how they open today and what the overall RCP strategy is. (sp 510p)
LK Hyman
30 May 2016
Re: Rothschild makes move to acquire ATS Global,Not sure I can see much point in this merger from RIT's perspective. Not being an ATST shareholder I'm not bothered about what it might do for ATST shareholders, I'm afraid.There doesn't seem to be massive scope for cost synergies and I suspect that there would be a lot of angst in Scotland if the Dundee operation was just shut down (which would be the sensible thing to do) and the wonga and a few of the best employees moved down to St James's in London to join the other top boys in RIT.Haven't seen anything other than the headline story, so further comment will have to await further detail. LKH on the flybridge
Global IT man
29 May 2016
Rothschild makes move to acquire ATS Look what's just appeared on the FT website...'RIT Capital Partners made an informal approach and remains interested in a £5bn combination'Behind paywall so I don't have any further details.
give the dog a bone
18 Feb 2016
another £10 million robbery .... ...just to pay off the likes of that poser . We're well shut of EGO or CEO whatever she held herself to be. there has to be some fair system whereby if an executive is unable to perform then that person be let go without having to raid the shareholders' coffers. Gawd knows how many sychophants she's promoted during her tenure and how many millions have been splashed on worthless consultants report - all to ensure she gets a soft parachute into the next 'victim' company. I just get so mad so see the same old faces the hesters et al jump ship from one plc to another plc and milk the juice without creating any worthwhile value.
In the dark yet again
15 Feb 2016
Re: And shut the door on your way out .... LKH,Given the changes last year, this did seem inevitable to me and there's some interesting (if factually incorrect) articles flying around out there.Yes, I agree with you that she was fabulously overpaid, a matter that drew attention not because she is a woman but because it was an outrageous amount for anyone to be paid to do that job, male of female. I guess if you have the sexist card in your hand it must be tempting to play it.But as for 'by mutual agreement', well that covers a multitude of sins. I think back to one of my own departures from office 'by mutual consent' and I guarantee you there would have been nothing 'mutual' or 'consent' involved whatsoever had not some dosh been coming my way. That one could have ended up in court, very messy all around and, let's face it, no one really wanted the washing of the dirty laundry in full public view.Just goes to show how difficult it is to get someone out of office when a large %age of the shares are held by small individual private investors (holding either directly or via ATS). A CEO with the chairperson in their back pocket can pretty much write their own ticket because corporate responsibility and accountability is a bit of a myth.If voting changed anything, they'd abolish it.On the plus side, the discount has never been lower!Regards,ITDYA
LK Hyman
15 Feb 2016
And shut the door on your way out .... So, farewell, then, KGC! It wasn't very pleasant while it lasted.Although I am not, and never have been, a shareholder in this pretty mediocre mob, if I WERE a shareholder I'd like to know why, in the name of all that's holy, if the fragrant KGC's departure was by mutual agreement, she's getting ANY compo for "loss of office"?She's been massively overpaid for YEARS for presiding over a pretty sorry-assed bunch of nonentities who were doubtless mesmerised by her impressive coiffure, gleaming teeth, and generally foxy demeanour.We will not see her like again. I trust.LKH on the flybridge tracking steadily south east
Wynford2
23 Dec 2015
Re: Discount From 'news' the aggressive buying in their own shares jumps out off the page and the campaign has been running since October.IMHO this will have to considerably reduce the size of the trust to have any permanent discount lowering effect and then the management cost as a %age goes up. I hope it's not the hedge funds leaving so that things can just drift back to the bad old ways.A reason for hanging on now is the prospect of a tender offer near par, but that might be too much to hope for.
Global IT man
22 Dec 2015
Discount Discount now below 8%!Must be at multi year lows. One of the reasons I bought this trust years ago was because of the big discount; might be time to lighten up; don't want the discount to go back to double figures ...
Ben Alligin
18 Dec 2015
"We're improving" says Alliance Alliance Trust claims to be on the right track with performance and costs as the rating on its share price hits a new high.Alliance Trust (ATST ) issued an end-of-year report card to shareholders this week after what has been a challenging 12 months for the Dundee-based fund.Coming after US hedge fund Elliott Capital increased its stake to 15%, the update demonstrated how Alliance wants to be on the front foot with its largest and most hostile shareholder, which this year has forced it into a series of changes.In the statement Alliance said it had taken action on all the targets set in October when former chief executive Katherine Garrett-Cox stepped down from the board and said it was ‘well placed for the future.’Helped by the positive market reaction to the US interest rate rise, the shares responded with a 10p rise on Thursday. This narrowed the discount – or gap – between its share price and its net asset value to 8.4%, a 10-year low according to Morningstar data.Full story at:[link]
trader jack
11 Dec 2015
KGC throwing toys out of pram? LONDON (ShareCast) - (ShareCast News) - Katherine Garrett-Cox, who stepped down as chief executive of Alliance Trust in October, is cashing in some of her chips before Christmas. She (Munich: SOQ.MU - news) sold 305,683 shares in the company through her spouse Jeremy, netting a total of £1.5m.That takes her total beneficial interest in the company to 1,333,147 shares, 0.2499% of the company.Garrett-Cox, who is still chief executive and a director of Alliance Trust's fund management arm, stepped down from her role as part of a broader board shakeup after a battle with shareholder activist fund Elliott Advisors.It (Other OTC: ITGL - news) came after the US hedge fund argued that Alliance Trust's performance has been poor and had campaigned for changes to the board.The parties reached a truce in April (LSE: 0N69.L - news) when the company agreed to appoint two of the three candidates Elliott had put forward for positions on the board.
give the dog a bone
29 Nov 2015
Re: Forseke resigns resigns eh?the only thing of interest is how much was her payoff ? why do shareholders get stuffed with these incompetents and then have to pay them silly money to leave only to hear they land a job at say RBS or TSCO running the same formulaic model Hopefully the yanks will break the UK Board cycle or milk merry go round for has been CEOs and Chairs - ie get a massive multi million payoff from the company you've just about bust; book a holiday in the Seycelles and be on the phone to your headhunter mates who in turn call on a few favours,. Result will be a formal waving into the new role, then hire PwC / KPMG and give them £millions to dust down the old reliable plan for growth ; get the board to throw in the kitchen sink and keep them sweet andstum by bribing them with a big pay hike , 3 mths later call the press and show them the powerpoint slides. Work on getting rid of the board directors who opposed your appointment and confirm to the head-hunter over lunch that the favour owed will be honoured as soon as necessary. it's all too common business practice .
