Alliance Trust

Alliance Trust plc

Type	Public
Traded as	LSE: ATST
Industry	Financial services
Founded	1888
Headquarters	Dundee, Scotland, UK
Key people	Lesley Knox (Chairman) Katherine Garrett-Cox (CEO)
Products	Investment management, pensions
Revenue	£86.8 million (2011)[1]
Operating income	£68.5 million (2011)[1]
Profit	£63.8 million (2011)[1]
Employees	circa 300
Website	www.alliancetrust.co.uk

Alliance Trust plc (LSE: ATST) is a publicly-traded investment and financial services company, headquartered in Dundee, Scotland. Established in 1888, the firm operates the largest investment trust in Britain.^[2] Alliance Trust is the tenth-largest company based in Scotland.^[3] It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and has been a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index since March 2011.

History

The Alliance Trust was formed by the 1888 merger of three Dundee-based mortgage and land companies: the Dundee Investment Company, the Dundee Mortgage and Trust and the Oregon and Washington Trust (which was set up to provide loans to immigrant farmers on the West Coast of the United States).^[4] Many prominent figures in Dundee invested some of their money in the Alliance Trust and its predecessors, including merchants, ship owners, textile manufacturers and businessman such as Sir John Leng.^[5] The company subsequently expanded into other asset classes. In 1918 the firm agreed to share premises and other costs with the Western & Hawaiian Investment Company,^[6] a mortgage lender which initially focused its business on sugar planters in Hawaii before expanding.^[4] Five years later it was renamed The Second Alliance Trust, although no formal merger between the two took place.^[6]

The trusts later moved into fixed income investing in the 1920s and 30s, before adding significant quantities of shares to their portfolios in the late 1950s.^[7] A savings division was established by Alliance Trust in 1986, offering pensions and other investment products.^[8] A formal merger with The Second Alliance Trust was finally conducted in 2006, as the investment strategies of the two companies had come to closely resemble each other.^[9] The merger greatly increased the market cap of the company, aiding it in gaining promotion to the FTSE 100 in February 2008.

The company left its headquarters of over 90 years, Meadow House, on June 1, 2009 for a purpose-built facility on 8 West Marketgait in Dundee City Centre.^[3] The company also has facilities and offices in Edinburgh and London.

In 2011, it was reported that University of Dundee Archive Services had become custodians of the Alliance Trust's extensive archives.^[5][10]

Operations

The company has four main business segments: quoted equity, property, private equity and financial services, the latter of which comprises its asset management and savings units.^[11] As of the end of March 2009, the company managed approximately £2,067.6m worth of assets.^[12] 50% of the trust's equity holdings are in UK institutions, with its five largest investments being in BP, Royal Dutch Shell, GlaxoSmithKline, Vodafone and BHP Billiton.^[12] Alliance Trust also continues to hold some oil and gas properties in Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma which remain from the original U.S. mortgage business of its founding companies and continue to generate considerable income.^[7]

Alliance Trust is led by CEO Katherine Garrett-Cox who took up the post on 29 August 2008.^[13] Garrett-Cox is paid an annual salary of £191,250 for her role as chief executive.^[14]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} Alliance Trust Annual Report 2011
2. ^ Rutherford, Hamish (6 February 2008). "Alliance Trust comes out of turbulence on top to join FTSE 100". The Scotsman. http://business.scotsman.com/business/Alliance-Trust-comes-out-of.3746914.jp. Retrieved 18 February 2008. 
3. ^ ^{a b} Robbins, Bruce (9 January 2007). "Alliance Trust makes city hub of expansion". The Courier. http://www.thecourier.co.uk/output/2007/01/09/newsstory9148137t0.asp. Retrieved 18 February 2008. 
4. ^ ^{a b} "About us: History 1873-1888". Alliance Trust. http://investor.alliancetrust.co.uk/ati/investorrelations/history.jsp. Retrieved 18 February 2008. 
5. ^ ^{a b} Baxter, Kenneth (March/April 2011). "The Alliance Trust: Dundee and the Wild West". Broadsheet- The SCA Newsletter (1): 6. http://www.scoarch.org.uk/filegrab/documents/b44987ad56bca66a4f4fd847b2dd98a2/broadsheet-the-sca-newsletter-issue-1-1.pdf. Retrieved 9 June 2011. 
6. ^ ^{a b} "About us: History 1918-1966". Alliance Trust. http://investor.alliancetrust.co.uk/ati/investorrelations/history2.jsp. Retrieved 18 February 2008. 
7. ^ ^{a b} Bolger, Andrew (6 February 2005). "On the way up in the oldest lift in the land". Financial Times. http://search.ft.com/nonFtArticle?id=050206002955. Retrieved 18 February 2008. 
8. ^ "About us: History 1969-1998". Alliance Trust. http://investor.alliancetrust.co.uk/ati/investorrelations/history3.jsp. Retrieved 18 February 2008. 
9. ^ Farrow, Paul (29 March 2006). "Alliance puts its trust in £2.8 billion merger". The Daily Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2006/03/29/cmall29.xml. Retrieved 18 February 2008. 
10. ^ "Business Archives". Archives, Records and Artefacts at the University of Dundee. http://www.archives-records-artefacts.com/2011/01/business-archives.html. Retrieved 9 June 2011. 
11. ^ "About us: Group Structure". Alliance Trust. http://investor.alliancetrust.co.uk/ati/investorrelations/structure.jsp. Retrieved 18 February 2008. 
12. ^ ^{a b} "Alliance Trust PLC Factsheet as at 31st March 2009" (PDF). Alliance Trust. http://www.alliancetrust.co.uk/pdfs/plc_factsheet0309.pdf. Retrieved 2 November 2008. 
13. ^ "Investor Centre: the Board". Alliance Trust. http://investor.alliancetrust.co.uk/ati/investorrelations/garrettcox.jsp. Retrieved 18 February 2008. 
14. ^ "Katherine Garrett-Cox: Executive Profile & Biography". BusinessWeek. McGraw-Hill. http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/people/person.asp?personId=13753465&ric=ATST.L. Retrieved 18 August 2009. 

External links

• Official website

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