The £5.5 billion Dundee-headquartered investment trust company Alliance Witan plc announced that its investment manager Willis Towers Watson (WTW) has appointed two new fund managers to pick stocks for its global equity portfolio.

Dundee-headquartered Alliance Trust plc and London-based Witan Investment Trust plc merged last year to create Alliance Witan, a FTSE 100 company managing more than £5 billion of assets.

“Brown Advisory Limited and Artisan Partners Limited Partnership have replaced Sustainable Growth Advisors LP (SGA) and ARGA Investment Management LP (ARGA). The total number of stock pickers in the multi-manager line-up remains unchanged at eleven.

“Brown Advisory is a private, independent company with $172 bn of assets under management. It focuses on finding companies with high and sustainable returns on invested capital that drive superior growth rates and profits for extended periods. Mick Dillon and Bertie Thomson will select stocks for the Alliance Witan portfolio.

“Artisan Partners’ strategy is led by Dan O’Keefe, a founding partner of the value investing team. Dan’s approach targets investments in high-quality businesses that are undervalued and offer the potential for superior risk-adjusted returns. The firm manages $178 bn of assets.

“As with the other nine stock pickers, Brown Advisory and Artisan Partners will manage concentrated bespoke mandates of up to 20 stocks for Alliance Witan.”

Craig Baker, Chair of the Alliance Witan Investment Committee at WTW, said: “We would like to thank SGA and ARGA for their contributions to the Alliance Witan portfolio. Both managers remain highly respected firms, but we keep the line-up under constant review and now have stronger conviction in the new combination of managers to add significant value for Alliance Witan shareholders.

“One of the benefits of the multi manager approach is its flexibility. We can adapt the line-up of best-in-class managers in response to changing circumstances without disrupting the whole portfolio.

“We believe the new manager line up offers the best combined portfolio for the current environment. Brown Advisory brings more high-quality companies to the portfolio, while Artisan’s bias to US stocks adds greater diversification in a concentrated market dominated by very large growth stocks.”