trader jack
27 Nov 2015
Forseke resigns Alliance Trust chairwoman Karin Forseke resignsReuters - UK FocusReuters - UK Focus – 1 hour 53 minutes ago LONDON, Nov 27 (Reuters) - Karin Forseke, chairwoman of embattled British investment firm Alliance Trust, said on Friday she was stepping down from her role on January 1, as the company implements a major overhaul following pressure from activist investor Elliott Advisors.Gregor Stewart, a non-executive director of Alliance Trust, will take on the role of interim chair until a new chair is chosen.It (Other OTC: ITGL - news) follows an announcement in October that the Trust would implement "significant changes" to deliver better performance, partly by creating a wholly indepenent board."We are making good progress implementing changes announced in October to accelerate our long-term strategy and we expect the new governance structure to be in place in early 2016," Forseke said in a statement.Katherine Garrett-Cox, chief executive of the trust said last month she was resigning her position on the trust's board to focus on tackling the firm's underperformance, in the aftermath of the bitter spat with its top shareholder Elliott.Alastair Kerr, senior independent director, will also stand down from the board on January 1, earlier than planned. Karl Sternberg will take on his role and lead the search for a new external candidate to chair the board.News (Other OTC: NWSAL - news) of Forseke's imminent departure comes as a blow to leaders of a nationwide campaign for greater female representation on the boards of British companies.The Davies Report on Women on Boards published in October showed that there were more women on the boards of companies listed in the FTSE 350 index than ever before, with representation of women more than doubling since 2011 - now at 26.1 percent on FTSE 100 boards and 19.6 percent on mid-cap FTSE 250 boards.There are no all-male boards in the FTSE 100 and only 15 in the FTSE 250, the report showed, but there are still just a handful of FTSE 100 female CEOs and two chairwomen. (Reporting by Sinead Cruise; Editing by Greg Mahlich)
Charityman
22 Nov 2015
Re: Alliance Trust signals change afoot Although the sp movements have mirrored the FTSE 100, since the beginning of 2013 it has drawn ahead if I am reading the chart correctly.Now, if it could just avoid following the downturns we would be streets ahead!
Graham Morrice
29 Oct 2015
Re: Alliance Trust signals change afoot The total return from Alliance has been in the first quartile of peers (inc. eg Edinburgh IT, Perpetual Growth and Income, SCAM, etc) over the last 12 months. Has a corner been turned? Slow and steady, yet mostly upwards sounds good to me if we can get it through future market turbulence.
LK Hyman
13 Oct 2015
Re: Alliance Trust announces changes to ... ITDYA,"the performance has lagged a tad, strangely enough since KGC arrived by almost exactly the amount of her compensation package (inc pension)."That's a goddamn disgrace, isn't it, but?I think she just weaved a spell on those who were her fellow directors ... until the Americans booted her into touch.[link] on the flybridge trust in me
In the dark yet again
13 Oct 2015
Re: Alliance Trust announces changes to ... nncalc,16 years? Late comers! Me just over 20. Started with a PEP (6k general plus 3k single company) were the fees were pretty low as long as you had some Alliance or 2nd Alliance stock. I thought buying trust stock was £1 plus stamp duty rather than free but it was a long time ago. The assets looked like a pseudo FTSE100, similar enough to make very little difference, the overheads were about the lowest around and there was a 15%+/- discount.... so, maybe a weird way to look at it, but invest £85, get dividend on £100 underlying stock, deduct the trusts overheads from that and what's left was a zero cost index tracker; actually very marginally better than that but with the 'risk' of where is the discount going to be when you cash in.Celebrations when it joined FTSE100? Why? It only happened because they merged the two trusts. As for index trackers then buying ATST, well it's already a tracker itself. Pay yourself fees for buying a trust that's charging fees for doing what you're meant to be doing! Oh how I love the fund management business!Anyway my ISA moved away years ago but I did move my SIPP in but that's now moved away as well. Still got a fair chunk of ATST in the SIPP, none in the ISA but the Alliance Trust Savings fees vs service has rarely worked for me. I only stayed as long as I did because of the 'hurdles' to exit.However, you talk, everyone talks of under-performance but FWLIW, if you go back 20 years, reinvest all dividend back into trust stock then compare it to a FTSE100 adjusted for dividends reinvested, there is precious little difference. Not great and not worth paying a lot (anything?) for but neither a disaster.In recent years the performance has lagged a tad, strangely enough since KGC arrived by almost exactly the amount of her compensation package (inc pension).Regards,ITDYA
nncalc
11 Oct 2015
Re: Alliance Trust announces changes to ... I find that I have been a customer of Alliance Trust Savings for over 16 years. In the olden days you were compelled to buy AT shares (zero commission) and then you paid no quarterly admin fees. If you were content to just hold AT shares you paid no commission or fees. I have seen so many "new starts", improvements to performance and new personnel that, by now, the company should be streets ahead of the competition. I remember the celebrations when AT was promoted to the FTSE 100 and featured in the tracker fund portfolios. I have read the latest letter to shareholders and find more good intentions but little else. The deck chairs will be moved around (again) but that will not stop the stock pickers picking the wrong stocks. I share the hope of some on this forum that Main Board now has members with an understanding of investment management and that this will lead to identification that poor performance stems from poor investment decisions and this has been a consistent feature of the Trust over many years. Whether this then leads to overdue change sits in the pending file.
LK Hyman
02 Oct 2015
Re: Alliance Trust announces changes to enha... ITDYA,"wasn't paying 7 to 8bp for KGC's screw"I'm sure that it's money well spent.LKH on the flybridge
LK Hyman
01 Oct 2015
Farewell then, KGC! Mr Market seems pleased, though I gather she will be staying on in some subsidiary role.LKH on the flybridge
Ben Alligin
24 Sep 2015
Alliance Trust signals change afoot The probability of significant change at Alliance Trust (ATST ) increased today after the underperforming global investment trust appointed two fund management veterans to its board.The appointment of Chris Samuel, former chief executive of Ignis Asset Management, and Karl Sternberg, former global head of equities at Deutsche Asset Management, as non-executives will mean five of the nine-strong board will have been replaced by next year's annual general meeting (AGM).John Hylands, former finance director of Standard Life who joined the board in 2008, and Alastair Kerr, former managing director of The Body Shop who joined three years ago, have agreed to retire at the AGM in May.Following their departure, all seven of the non-executives, including chairman Karin Forseke, will have either fund management of banking experience.In April Alliance Trust caved into pressure from its largest shareholder, Elliott Associates, and agreed to the appointment of Rory Macnamara, who had a career at Morgan Grenfell, and Anthony Brooke, a former SG Warburg investment banker who later moved into fund management.Last year, before the costly battle with Elliott, a US hedge fund, Alliance was joined by Gregor Stewart, a former finance director of Lloyds Banking Group. The other non-executive is Susan Noble, formerly a fund manager at Robert Fleming and Goldman Sachs, who has sat on the board since 2012.Alliance said the new appointments, which come as the Dundee-based company prepares to unveil changes aimed at improving investment returns, had been made following consultation with its largest shareholders.Analysts and brokers said the arrival of 'new blood' strengthened the board and made it more likely it would challenge Alliance's chief executive Katherine Garrett-Cox and chief financial officer Alan Trotter.Full story at:[link]
Wynford2
24 Sep 2015
Re: Elliott lifts Alliance Trust stake t... Re: "The performance has not been that great so far"How else does one judge an Investment Trust, other than by performance?Maybe ATST can sell it as a poor performance 'ethical' fund to those with a guilt complex over their assets: such as the comfortable middle classes who now get a warm feeling over Corbynomics.But this niche is surely too small to support the KGC empire.P.S. some change around in directors recently, I wonder who is driving that.
schovald
22 Sep 2015
Re: Elliott lifts Alliance Trust stake t... Personally I am finding myself warming to the invigorated trust management and the way they are developing the portfolio with an SRI bias. The performance has not been that great so far, but the new investment strategy has only been in place for 12 months. I think they need to promote the ethical aspects of the portfolio more - possibly by a name change - which would more clearly distringuish our trust from other more general global offerings.
give the dog a bone
22 Sep 2015
Re: Elliott lifts Alliance Trust stake to 14... the sooner this pair of no marks accept they are incapable of running an IT and get back to their knitting the sooner the US big boys can come in and sort this ship out. businesswomen of the year my foot !
Ben Alligin
21 Sep 2015
Elliott lifts Alliance Trust stake to 14% US hedge fund Elliott Associates has maintained the pressure on Alliance Trust (ATST ) by lifting its stake in the global investment trust to over 14%.The New York-based activist investor, which forced Alliance to accept two new non-executive directors on its board before the annual general meeting in April, now owns 14.03% of Alliance: 9.95% through ordinary shares, which carry voting rights, and 4.09% through contracts for difference (CFDs), which do not.The move comes as Alliance Trust consults with shareholders and prepares to announce changes aimed at improving shareholder returns.In July Alliance’s chairman Karin Forseke promised to unveil changes in the autumn. This followed half-year results she described as ‘disappointing’ and a barrage of criticism from investors after its costly battle with Elliott.Full story at:[link]
trader jack
24 Jul 2015
Re: Results I keep getting a pop up ad on ii site from Alliance Trust:"Ignorance is bliss" sounds like how they have been operating - "Knowledge is power" mmmmmm not so sure about that in the case of Alliance perhaps it should read "Knowledge is foresight"Do not Foreseke me, oh my darling - LKH that has to be one of your worst ha ha!
LK Hyman
24 Jul 2015
Re: Results Jack,"You would hope that the ever fragrant KGC's business sense was better than her dress sense"Ja reckon she uses PZ Cusson's fake tan stuff, m8? I tend to agree with you about her dress sense, though one can understand why she wore a camo jacket with those horrible Americans around. Those results were pretty awful, weren't they? I think the fragrant one has just cast a spell over all the other BoD members ... the male ones anyhoo ... let's face it, she has got great hair and looks like Nefertiti.I wouldn't let her run my money, mind.I reckon it's nearly High Noon for KG-C.[link] on the flybridge warbles "Do not Forseke me, oh my darling" ... do you see what I did there?
