The half-year report, published 23 July, showed assets under administration in the firm’s savings division rose from £6.4bn to £7.2bn in the six months to 30 June, a large part of which was contributed by new inflows.
However, this could not stem company losses, which, despite being cut by 59% on the same time-frame the previous year, accounted for a £1.1m overall deficit.
This translated to a drop in Alliance Trust’s net asset value per share, which fell from 546.8p on 31 December 2014 to 545.9p against a share price increase of 1.2% to 484.8p, meaning discount stood at 11.2%.
With the results coming in the wake of a long-running dispute with major shareholder Elliott Advisers, Karin Forseke, chair of Alliance Trust, announced that the board will outline the changes it intends to implement to the business in the autumn.
“The first half of 2015 was a particularly challenging period for Alliance Trust,” she said.
“In the run up to our AGM a significant proportion of our shareholder base indicated that they sought change. The board has listened to these concerns and is actively engaged in addressing them.”
Furthermore, Katherine Garrett-Cox, Alliance Trust CEO, highlighted low-risk exposure to global equity markets as a key part of the firm’s forward vision, having reduced the number of holdings from 88 to 68 over the past year.
“Our objective is to maximise shareholder value by delivering a combination of long-term capital growth and a consistently rising dividend,” she said. “We aim to achieve this through a portfolio which provides low risk exposure to global equities.
“This concentration means that we are putting higher levels of conviction behind every holding and we are confident that this will deliver superior returns in the long term, albeit recognising that there can sometimes be periods of stock-specific underperformance.”
In the firm’s investment business, third-party assets under management continued its uptick boosted by inflows of £59.3m, rising from £1.9bn to £2bn in the period.
Nevertheless, Alliance Trust shareholders saw a H1 2015 total return of 2.7% and 11.6% in the past 12 months.
