Alliance Trust plc, the £3.3 billion Dundee investment trust company, announced that its investment manager Willis Towers Watson (WTW) has appointed Los Angeles-based Asia investment specialist Dalton Investments LLC as a new stock picker for its multi-manager global equity portfolio.

Craig Baker, chairman of WTW’s Investment Committee, said: “Following extensive corporate governance reforms, we believe the Japanese corporate sector is on the cusp of a long-term revival, but it is a unique market which requires specialist, active manager skills to navigate and tap its potential.

“Dalton is a value-focused, employee-owned manager that looks to exploit mispricing opportunities in the most under-researched companies in Japan, which generally steers its focus to small and mid-cap companies.

“WTW believes that the appointment of Dalton will bring a differentiated approach to the Alliance Trust portfolio, providing further diversification and outperformance potential.”

Alliance Trust said: “Dalton will receive a 4% allocation of capital funded by a reallocation of the portfolio from the existing nine stock pickers.

“This takes the stock picker line-up to ten.”

Alliance Trust added: “In keeping with WTW’s philosophy for the Alliance Trust portfolio, the overall exposure of the portfolio will remain broadly style, sector and region neutral, seeking to generate market outperformance from stock selection.

“The introduction of Dalton will result in the portfolio having a marginal overweight position in Japan relative to benchmark.”