LORD Smith’s gamble appears to be paying off.
Having inherited the chairmanship of the ailing Alliance Trust at the start of last year, the omnipresent businessmen was faced with a number of dilemmas.
Chief among them was how to turn around the performance of the trust, which was failing to keep up with the market despite employing expensive managers to beat it.
Then there was the small matter of how to deal with Elliott Advisors, an aggressive American activist that had built up a considerable position in Alliance’s shares and was agitating for change.
Having toyed with the idea of bringing in a star name, Lord Smith eventually settled on entrusting the portfolio’s future to no less than eight different managers - nine if you include their overseer Willis Towers Watson.
To his relief investors - Elliott in particular - went for the idea and so, with Elliott safely out of the picture following a massive share buyback, the new-look Alliance Trust was unveiled in April.
It appears to have been a good move, with the trust putting in a solid performance in the first half of 2017, beating its benchmark by six percentage points and continuing its 50-year tradition of hiking its dividend.
Yet, with only three months under the new managers included in the results, it is impossible to tell whether their skills or simple market quirks are behind the nascent turnaround.
It is clear that the trust is not out of the woods yet - something that is also evident from an ongoing programme of share buybacks that has helped halve, but not eliminate, Alliance’s discount in the past year.
The overall aim is to get to a position where Alliance can ape its mammoth rival Scottish Mortgage, which is so popular among potential investors that it regularly issues new shares that sell at a premium.
To get there could take years, but only then will Lord Smith be able to rest on his laurels.
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