Tag: Witan

Alliance Trust GM and Greggs Trading Statement

I was hoping to attend the General Meeting of Alliance Trust (ATST) this morning on-line to approve the merger with Witan but at the time of writing despite having registered for it no invitation has been received. I voted against it of course.

Another company I hold shares in is Greggs (GRG) who issued a Q3 trading statement this morning. It is good news with total sales up 10.6% and LFL sales up 5.0% in company managed shops. They opened 152 new shops and closed 66 with a number of relocations.

This company shows how effective a change of management can be in reviving the fortunes of a business which happened a few years ago. But the share price fell over 5% this morning on negative media comments about slowing sales growth. I will ignore this “noise” and continue to hold the shares.

Paul Scott on Stockopedia reported positively on sampling the products recently. He said “Revenue growth slowed in Q3, but is still good. Maybe that’s to be expected as inflation moderates? Profit expectations are in line for FY 12/2024. Is “in line” good enough when shares are on a punchy 21.6x forward earnings? Lovely company, but shares look fully priced”. See the Small Cap Value Report for more information.

Personally I don’t mind paying a high price for shares in businesses that are well managed and generally meet forecasts.

Yesterday I had a visit from T.M.Akers who repairs antique furniture in London. It’s more than 20 years since I last saw him. Isn’t it annoying when you meet someone who appears not to have aged after 20+ years while I have become quite decrepit!

We have the Conservative Party Conference running at present but it’s not a very exciting affair. This is what John O’Connell, chief executive of the Taxpayers Alliance, hit the nail on the head when he said: “Labour came in promising to step more lightly on people’s lives, but the change they are set to deliver looks likely to be yet another round of spending increases and tax hikes that only further damages household budgets while doing little to reform gravely underperforming public services.”

Where are the positive proposals from the Tory leadership candidates that will capture the public’s imagination?

Roger Lawson (Twitter: https://twitter.com/RogerWLawson  )

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Alliance Trust and Witan Merger

 

Shareholders in Alliance Trust (ATST) and Witan Investment Trust (WTAN) should have received voting instructions for how to vote on the proposed merger of the two companies (I hold one of them). I commented on the relative performance of the two trusts earlier this year – see https://roliscon.blog/2024/03/25/alliance-trust-and-witan-why-is-one-doing-well-but-not-the-other/

Clearly shareholders in Witan might be unhappy and might welcome the merger but I can see little benefit for Alliance Trust shareholders. The combined trust will be larger and hence the ongoing charge for Alliance shareholders might improve slightly but it is already quite low at 62 bps. But the larger an investment trust becomes the worse the performance tends to be. There are only so many “good ideas” that a fund manager can have.

As a holder of only Alliance Trust I have therefore voted against the merger. This is one of the proposals that seems of more benefit to the fund managers than to the shareholders.

BUT DO MAKE SURE YOU VOTE!

Roger Lawson (Twitter: https://twitter.com/RogerWLawson  )

You can “follow” this blog by entering your email address in the box below.  You will then receive an email alerting you to new posts as they are added.