The Dundee institution that is Alliance Trust has tried to be a financial services group, running itself, a savings platform and a unit trust business.
That meant the job of chief executive was big enough to tempt the talented Katherine Garrett-Cox to leave the City and head for the hills of Angus nine years ago.
But when last spring Alliance claimed that activist shareholder attempts to make it more accountable would “threaten the very existence of the company”, many shareholders suspected, correctly, that the real threat was to the future of its chairman and chief executive.
When the FTSE-100 board, unusually led by two women, climbed down on the eve of the annual meeting, the writing was on the wall for chairman Karin Forseke, who left in November.
The creation last week of non-executive boards for the trust and its subsidiaries effectively made 'Katherine the Great' redundant.
What the overhaul does suggest is that shareholders were right to agitate. From this month, Alliance Trust Investments has a standard industry fee and a target of outperforming a new benchmark – or stand to lose the trust. Costs are being cut, investors pay less than before, and the discount of share price to asset value is being actively managed.
Numis Securities says Alliance is “now a far more attractive vehicle”. It also warns that pressure remains on the managers, appointed by Ms Garrett-Cox, to "deliver a sustained improvement in performance".
But the investment trust business model, born in Scotland, means shareholders can effect positive change.
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