Alliance Witan, the combination of Witan Investment trust and Alliance trust, has officially been listed on the London Stock Exchange as a single trust, under the ticker ALW.
The trust has appointed non-executive directors Andrew Ross, Rachel Beagles, Shauna Bevan and Jack Perry to the board, effective today (10 October). Ross, who will be deputy chair of the company, was chief executive of Cazenove Capital Management until it was acquired by Schroders in 2013, when he became global head of wealth management. He is currently a non-executive director for Polar Capital Holdings plc and Cadogan Settled Estates.
With the combination of the companies, 120.9 million shares will be issued to Witan Investment Trust shareholders, as Alliance Witan acquires £1.5bn of net assets from the former Witan Investment Trust. In total, there will be 401.8 million ordinary shares excluding treasury shares following issuance approval. Total net assets will be around £5bn. The merger was announced in June, following the retirement of Witan’s CEO Andrew Bell.
See also: Witan Alliance merger ‘best-fit outcome’, but questions raised over WTAN’s trust holdings
Willis Towers Watson, the investment manager for Alliance Witan, has also added Jennison Associates as its 11th stockpicker for the global equity portfolio. The portion of the portfolio managed by Jennison is mostly filled with stocks it previously managed under Witan. Most of the portfolio which was under Witan has been transferred to BlackRock “acting as a transition manager for realignment”. Alliance Witan said the risk profile of the portfolio will stay largely the same.
Craig Baker, chief investment officer of WTW and chair of the Alliance Witan Investment committee, said: “Jennison has long been one of our highest-rated managers and will diversify our exposure to growth stocks. The combination with Witan gives us the opportunity to transfer them in largely in-specie, hence with relatively low transaction costs.”
