This morning I attended the Annual General Meeting of Alliance Witan (ALW) investment trust. This was a “hybrid” AGM with clearly good attendance at the physical meeting in Scotland and virtually via Zoom. It was well organised and I had no difficulty logging in or voting beforehand.
The Chairman Dean Buckley managed the meeting well and answered questions clearly.
I have held shares in this company since 2015 and it helps to give me a balanced stake in global equities. My annual return has been 7.7% p.a. according to Sharescope although I think it would have been better if I had not traded in and out of the shares since 2015.
The performance against it’s benchmark has been disappointing in the last year although this might have been affected by the merger with Witan. Like other global equity funds it’s low holdings in the big 7 tech companies has affected it also.
The company uses a “multi-manager” approach to ensure diversity of thought on new holdings. It has increased dividends for the last 58 years so is attractive to investors looking for stable dividends in real terms with some capital growth.
The Chairman said they had decided to alternate the AGM between Dundee and London in future but that attracted some criticism from a couple in the audience – is not Scotland the most beautiful country?
Another question raised was about the investment in a tobacco company which the board does not rule out but they do impose some restrictions on sectors such as ruling out thermal coal. Otherwise they do not interfere in investment decisions.
My feeling is I am happy to continue holding this trust but performance does need to improve.
Roger Lawson (Twitter: https://x.com/RogerWLawson )
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