Donate to Remove ads

Got a credit card? use our Credit Card & Finance Calculators

Thanks to johnstevens77,Bhoddhisatva,scotia,Anonymous,Cornytiv34, for Donating to support the site

Alliance (ATST)

Closed-end funds and OEICs
richfool
Lemon Quarter
Posts: 3492
Joined: November 19th, 2016, 2:02 pm
Has thanked: 1195 times
Been thanked: 1280 times

Alliance (ATST)

#429842

Postby richfool » July 23rd, 2021, 8:37 am

Alliance Half Year Results just out:
Performance Highlights

For the six months to 30 June 2021, the Company’s Net Asset Value (NAV) Total Return was 14.8% outperforming its benchmark, the MSCI All Country World Index (MSCI ACWI) which returned 11.1%
The Company’s Total Shareholder Return (TSR) of 11.1% reflected a widening of the discount from 3.5% at the start of the year to 6.7% at the end of June
Between 1 April 2017, when WTW was appointed Investment Manager, and 30 June 2021, the Company’s NAV Total Return and TSR were 58.4% and 56.6% respectively, against 57.2% for the benchmark
A second quarterly dividend of 3.702p, an increase of 3% on last year, will be paid in September and the Board expects to extend the Company’s 54-year track record of increasing ordinary dividends
The Board is reviewing the level of the Company’s dividend to assess if and how a more attractive and sustainable level of distributions may be provided to shareholders in the future
Reflecting our goal of transitioning the portfolio to net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, we will be introducing exclusions on investing in stocks with significant exposure to thermal coal and tar sands

“We are pleased to have comfortably outperformed our benchmark index in the first half of 2021. With the increasing spread of returns between companies, it is now becoming much more of a stock pickers’ market, which plays to the strengths of our diversified yet high conviction approach to investing.

We recognise that the Company’s delivery of a sustainable, rising income is particularly important to many of its shareholders and are proud that the Company has been able to increase its total ordinary dividend for 54 consecutive years. With increased dividends expected as a result of the global economy re-opening, and the further flexibility that the conversion of the Company’s £645.3m merger reserve provides, the Board has started a review of the level and funding of its dividend payments. It will examine if and how the Company could deliver a more attractive and sustainable level of dividend to shareholders, without changing the investment strategy.

Although excluding stocks with significant exposure to thermal coal and tar sands will not result in significant divestments, it reinforces our ambition to have the portfolio managed to achieve net zero greenhouse emissions by 2050 or earlier. The portfolio’s carbon footprint is already 32.8% lower than the benchmark and this decision helps to keep us on the right track.”

https://www.investegate.co.uk/alliance- ... 0000H7657/

Dividend announcement:
Alliance Trust PLC announces the declaration of a second interim dividend for the year ending 31 December 2021 of 3.702 pence per share payable on 30 September 2021 to shareholders on the register on 3 September 2021. The ex-dividend date is 2 September 2021.

https://www.investegate.co.uk/alliance- ... 0000H7658/

Dod101
The full Lemon
Posts: 16629
Joined: October 10th, 2017, 11:33 am
Has thanked: 4343 times
Been thanked: 7534 times

Re: Alliance (ATST)

#429850

Postby Dod101 » July 23rd, 2021, 8:56 am

Thanks. I am pleased to hold Alliance and it was one of my very first investments after I got seriously into investing about 30 years ago. Since the upheavals of the first decade of this century it has done quite well.Looks as though they may be looking to increase the dividend payment by possibly making some distributions from capital reserves following the conversion of their merger reserve into distributable reserves. They have been using their Revenue Reserve to help pay the recent dividends.

Incidentally it is worth looking carefully at their announcement. There is a huge amount of information there.

Dood

monabri
Lemon Half
Posts: 8396
Joined: January 7th, 2017, 9:56 am
Has thanked: 1539 times
Been thanked: 3428 times

Re: Alliance (ATST)

#429864

Postby monabri » July 23rd, 2021, 9:49 am

(OK...Contra view coming!)

Comparisons between ATST and Vanguard's S&P500 tracker (TIDM of "VUSA") indicate that the managers at ATST need to do something as they are , imho, not adding anything. Indeed, over the last 3 and 5 years, cheap tracker VUSA (0.07% ongoing charge) has provided a higher total return...not by a huge margin but it is more apparent in the second plot graph below.

( note , all graphs plotted using tools freely available at Hargreaves Lansdowne - link here )

https://www.hl.co.uk/funds/fund-discoun ... ion/charts


5 year total returns

Image

Over the last 5 years, total return for VUSA was 106% versus 98% for ATST ( rounded values).

The last 3 years - Total Returns

Image

Over the last 3 years, total return for VUSA was 55% versus 38% for ATST ( rounded values).

Over the last 3 years, ATST seems to "track" the S&P500 index ( VUSA) but suffers relatively because it can't match VUSA's 0.07% costs.

In this graph , I've taken the last 3 years and added a comparison with a World tracker fund, Vanguard's "VWRL".

Image

Dod101
The full Lemon
Posts: 16629
Joined: October 10th, 2017, 11:33 am
Has thanked: 4343 times
Been thanked: 7534 times

Re: Alliance (ATST)

#429902

Postby Dod101 » July 23rd, 2021, 11:56 am

As can be seen from their announcement they do not benchmark against Vanguard but against the MSCI ACWI. They are not doing startlingly better than that either I will grant you but Alliance has always been a middle of the road dependable IT and it has reverted to type. I think the bugbear with their current arrangements is that it drives up costs. I am sorry that we cannot have in person AGMs at the moment otherwise we might learn a bit more.

Dod

scotia
Lemon Quarter
Posts: 3561
Joined: November 4th, 2016, 8:43 pm
Has thanked: 2371 times
Been thanked: 1943 times

Re: Alliance (ATST)

#429958

Postby scotia » July 23rd, 2021, 3:57 pm

monabri wrote:
Comparisons between ATST and Vanguard's S&P500 tracker (TIDM of "VUSA") indicate that the managers at ATST need to do something as they are , imho, not adding anything. Indeed, over the last 3 and 5 years

I think you are being a little unfair in your comparisions. VUSA is a USA tracker. I have a USA Tracker, but I also want global coverage - the USA may not always be the most successful market. So I also hold a Vanguard Global Tracker (VWRL), which has a 55% US content, and ATST which has a 61% US content. On a 5 year total return basis, VWRL has increased by 81.6%, and ATST has increased by 97.7%.
On looking at other Global investments that I hold, F&C Investment Trust (FCIT) has increased by 94.3%, and Fundsmith (an OEIC) has increased by 122%. So I feel that ATST has performed reasonably well alongside similar companions. I will however agree that it hasn't performed like the Baillie Gifford (rocket) products - e.g. Scottish Mortgage (SMT) 378%, Edinburgh Worldwide (EWI) 259%, Monks (MNKS) 202%.
Confession - I like a bit of diversification, so I hold investments in all of the above (except VUSA - I hold the Ishares version CSP1). :)
All figures from Hargreaves Lansdown - hopefully transcribed without error.


Return to “Investment Trusts and Unit Trusts”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 12 guests