ATST Alliance Trust Plc

Alliance Witan PLC (the “Company”)
LEI: 213800SZZD4E21OZ9W55

Portfolio Update: New Stock Picker Appointed for Alliance Witan

Alliance Witan PLC (“Alliance Witan” or the “Company”) announces that its investment manager, Willis Towers Watson (“WTW”), has appointed Jennison Associates (“Jennison”) as an additional stock picker for its multi-manager global equity portfolio, taking the total number of stock pickers to eleven.

New York and Boston-based Jennison was founded in 1969. It has $210 billion of assets under management (as of 30 June 2024) and specialises in investing in companies with exceptional growth prospects. Jennison previously managed part of the multi-manager global equity portfolio of Witan Investment Trust (“Witan”) before the latter’s combination with Alliance Trust plc to create Alliance Witan (the “Combination”), which completed on 9 October.

Jennison’s allocation of approximately 5% of the Company’s portfolio has been largely filled from a subset of the stocks which it managed within Witan. Most of the balance of Witan’s portfolio transferred pursuant to the Combination has been handed to BlackRock, which is acting as transition manager, for realignment. However, with two managers in common between Alliance Trust and Witan – Veritas Asset Management and GQG Partners – there have also been some other in specie transfers of stock which will be retained.

The overall risk profile of the Alliance Witan portfolio will remain largely unchanged from that of the Alliance Trust portfolio before the Combination, reflecting the continuation of the distinctive multi-manager approach previously employed. There will be no major regional, style or sectoral biases relative to the market, with most of the added value designed to come from stock picking. Details of allocations by manager will be available in the next factsheet.

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.”

9 October 2024

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