The recently-merged Alliance Witan investment trust announced the completion of the transition of assets from Witan Investment Trust to Alliance Witan following shareholder approval for the combination of Alliance Trust and Witan on October 9.

The trust’s investment manager is Willis Towers Watson (WTW).

Dundee-headquartered Alliance Trust plc and London-based Witan Investment Trust plc agreed in June to merge to create a company managing about £5 billion in the latest example of consolidation in the investment trust sector.

Alliance Witan said Blackrock Inc. helped to manage the transition of assets and keep costs to a minimum.

While Blackrock was completing the transition of assets, WTW said it took the opportunity to also make a manager change, replacing Black Creek Investment Management with EdgePoint Wealth Management.

The appointment of EdgePoint follows that of Jennison Associates, previously one of Witan’s investment managers, which was announced at the start of the transition just over two weeks ago.

“EdgePoint, based in Toronto, is an employee-owned business, founded in 2008,” said Alliance Witan.

“It manages $25bn of client assets, as of 30 June 2024, and seeks to buy good, undervalued business and hold them until the market fully realises their potential.

“The resulting risk profile of the portfolio is largely unchanged, with no excessive exposure relative to the benchmark to regions, sectors or styles, and most of the added value is expected to come from stock selection.

“The direct costs of the portfolio transition and manager changes, including BlackRock’s fee, trading commissions, tax and bid/offer spreads, will be less than 0.04% of the Alliance Witan portfolio, representing fair value for shareholders.”

Craig Baker, Chief Investment Officer of WTW and Chair of the Alliance Witan Investment Committee, said: “We would like to express our appreciation to the team at Black Creek for their contribution to the Company since their appointment in 2017.

“While we continue to rate Black Creek highly, a senior member of the team left in the last 12 months on health grounds, and we have been evaluating succession planning for some time.

“While Bill Kanko has no specific retirement date in mind and there are other experienced investors at the firm, we have taken the opportunity to switch to a manager in which we have high conviction, and which brings a fresh perspective to the new, combined portfolio …

“Now that Witan’s assets are fully invested, it is business as usual. We will be using the same proven investment approach we have always used for Alliance Witan, although we will be retaining a small number of Witan’s discounted investment trust holdings, which represent less than 3% of the portfolio, until such time that they can be sold at an attractive price for shareholders.”