The results showed a NAV per share total return of -5.7%, compared to -8% from the AIC’s Global Growth Sector.
Meanwhile, Alliance Trust’s share price fell 5.8%, with a -3.5% total return, versus -8.6% from the peer group.
Alliance Trust said its top quartile performance was well ahead of the Global Growth Sector and that it was ranked sixth out of 32 trusts during the period.
It also narrowed its discount in the year to 31 December from 17.1% to 15.5%, while the weighted discount of its peer group widened.
But this did follow the buyback of 10.3% of the company’s shares during the year at a total cost of £246m.
Within its asset management business, Alliance Trust Investments, third party assets grew by over 50% to more than £125m and the company said the launch of the Global Thematic Opportunities Fund would consolidate this position in 2012.
Katherine Garrett-Cox, chief executive of Alliance Trust, said: "I am very pleased with the way in which each of the businesses of Alliance Trust has contributed to the results. We have generated returns well ahead of the sector as a whole and, crucially for our long-term investors, we have been able to grow the dividend by over 7%, the largest annual increase in twenty years and we have done so out of current year earnings."
