Confirmation of the fund manager selection comes exactly a month after Alliance Trust reported that it would be selling its investment management business to Liontrust, and moving away from a single manager model to a multi-manager system.
The sale and multi-manager makeover were the fruits of an 18-month long strategic review, during which it was also decided that Willis Tower Watson would be responsible for selecting eight “best-in-class” managers to pick stocks for a new equity portfolio. The managers in turn would then select 20 stocks that they have the highest convictions in.
Many investors reserved judgment on Alliance Trust restructuring efforts, arguing the ultimate success of the equity portfolio depended heavily on WTW’s choices. And others felt the UK’s largest investment trust was doing too little too late to address the perennial complaints from shareholders.
Three of the eight equity managers chosen by WTW are based in London – Jupiter Asset Management’s Ben Whitmore, Veritas Asset Management’s Andy Headley and Hugh Sergeant of River and Mercantile Asset Management.
They will be joined by Black Creek Investment Management (Toronto), First Pacific Advisors (Los Angeles), GQG Partners (Fort Lauderdale), Lyrical Asset Management (New York) and Sustainable Growth Advisers (Stamford).
WTW CIO Craig Baker will manage the multi-manager portfolio with the help of David Shapiro and Mark Davis as co-portfolio managers and Stuart Gray as the lead researcher.
On the selection, Alliance Trust remarked: “WTW believes that these eight managers, which all received the highest rating, together will create a highly compelling equity portfolio where long term returns relative to benchmark will be primarily driven by stock selection rather than macroeconomic factors.”
