ATST Alliance Trust Plc

Alliance Witan PLC (the “Company”)

LEI: 213800SZZD4E21OZ9W55

Portfolio Update: Alliance Witan completes portfolio transition, brings in EdgePoint for Black Creek

Alliance Witan’s investment manager, Willis Towers Watson (“WTW”), is pleased to announce the completion of the transition of assets from Witan Investment Trust (“Witan”) to Alliance Witan following shareholder approval for the combination of Alliance Trust and Witan on 9 October.

Blackrock Inc. has helped to manage the transition and keep the costs to a minimum. While Blackrock was completing the transition of assets, WTW took the opportunity to also make a manager change, replacing Black Creek Investment Management (“Black Creek”) with EdgePoint Wealth Management (“EdgePoint”).

The appointment of EdgePoint follows that of Jennison Associates, previously one of Witan’s investment managers, which was announced at the start of the transition just over two weeks ago.

EdgePoint, based in Toronto, is an employee-owned business, founded in 2008. It manages $25bn of client assets, as of 30 June 2024, and seeks to buy good, undervalued business and hold them until the market fully realises their potential.

With the portfolio realignment now completed, the new manager allocations are as follows:

The resulting risk profile of the portfolio is largely unchanged, with no excessive exposure relative to the benchmark to regions, sectors or styles, and most of the added value is expected to come from stock selection.

The direct costs of the portfolio transition and manager changes, including BlackRock’s fee, trading commissions, tax and bid/offer spreads, will be less than 0.04% of the Alliance Witan portfolio, representing fair value for shareholders.

Craig Baker, Chief Investment Officer of WTW and Chair of the Alliance Witan Investment Committee, said: “We would like to express our appreciation to the team at Black Creek for their contribution to the Company since their appointment in 2017. While we continue to rate Black Creek highly, a senior member of the team left in the last 12 months on health grounds, and we have been evaluating succession planning for some time. While Bill Kanko has no specific retirement date in mind and there are other experienced investors at the firm, we have taken the opportunity to switch to a manager in which we have high conviction, and which brings a fresh perspective to the new, combined portfolio.

Baker added: “Now that Witan’s assets are fully invested, it is business as usual. We will be using the same proven investment approach we have always used for Alliance Witan, although we will be retaining a small number of Witan’s discounted investment trust holdings, which represent less than 3% of the portfolio, until such time that they can be sold at an attractive price for shareholders.”

Ends

About Alliance Witan (ALW)

Alliance Witan aims to deliver long-term capital growth and rising income from investing in global equities at a competitive cost. Our investment manager blends the top stock selections of some of the world’s best active managers into a single diversified portfolio designed to outperform the market while carefully managing risk and volatility. Alliance Trust is an AIC Dividend Hero with 57 consecutive years of rising dividends

https://www.alliancewitan.com

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