Alliance Witan plc – Final Results

A landmark year

Annual results for the year ended 31 December 2024

Financial highlights as at 31 December 2024

Chair’s Statement

• Landmark combination with Witan
• Another strong year for equities
• 58th consecutive annual dividend increase
• Discount narrower than the AIC Global Sector average
• Named by the AIC as a top 20 best performing investment trust over ten years¹

2024 was a landmark year for your Company. I would like to begin by thanking you for your support for the combination of Alliance Trust and Witan to form Alliance Witan and by welcoming all shareholders who have joined us as a result. This was a pivotal moment in our history, achieving economies of scale and elevating the Company to the FTSE 100. Now, as one of the industry’s leaders, this status will provide better liquidity for our shares and, with good long term investment performance and a strong brand, help us attract new investors. We made a number of commitments to investors as part of the proposals, for example in respect of dividends and costs, and you will see as you read through the Annual Report how we have achieved each of these.

As I mentioned in the Interim Report for the six months ended 30 June 2024, there has been no change to the Company’s investment strategy, just a larger pool of assets for our Investment Manager, WTW, to manage with the same professionalism that it has brought to the job since April 2017.

1. https://www.theaic.co.uk/aic/news/press-releases/top-20-best-performing-investment-trusts-for-your-isa

Investment Performance

It was another good year for global equity markets, and your Company delivered strong absolute returns. NAV Total Return was 13.3% and, due to a narrowing of the discount, Share Price Total Return was 14.3%. However, we lagged our benchmark index, the MSCI All Country World Index (‘MSCI ACWI’ or ‘Index’), which returned 19.6%. We also marginally underperformed our peers in the AIC Global Sector, which is disappointing, but we were slightly ahead of the much wider, more representative Morningstar peer group of open and closed-ended global equity funds.

Simply put, our relative performance in 2024 suffered from not having enough exposure to the small number of very large companies that dominated market returns, especially in the US.

The narrowness of returns from global equity markets has been a common problem for all active managers in recent years, and we take comfort from the fact that, despite this persistent headwind, we are ahead of the Index and have significantly outperformed both peer groups over three years.

Outlook

Since the start of President Trump’s second term of office in January, tariffs have created uncertainty about the outlook for equities. Diplomatic tensions over efforts to end the war in Ukraine and conflict in Gaza have also raised geopolitical risks. Furthermore, European bond markets are adjusting to the prospect of increased borrowing to fund higher levels of defence and infrastructure spending.

While there is a risk that heightened levels of uncertainty will impact on business and consumer confidence, global growth and corporate earnings forecasts are currently healthy, giving some grounds for cautious optimism, about further gains for shareholders, especially if there is a broadening out of market leadership.

While the Index is highly concentrated, your portfolio has broader exposure to many good businesses that have not yet received the market recognition our Stock Pickers believe they deserve.

The portfolio will not always outperform the market in every discrete period, but we believe it will continue to add significant value for shareholders in the long run.

I look forward to meeting as many of you as possible at the AGM in Dundee or the next investor forum in London.

Dean Buckley
Chair
6 March 2025