Under the terms set forth by the board, ATI will no longer be the sole manager responsible for the trust’s equity portfolio. Instead, the firm, in conjunction with Willis Towers Watson (WTW), will appoint eight equity managers to create a portfolio for the trust, made up of their best 20 investment ideas.
In this way, ATI is late to the party, as many trusts have already ditched a single manager model in favour of a multi-manager approach, said head of investment analysis at Hargreaves Lansdown Richard Troue.
He added: “On balance it is encouraging to see the Board take further steps to improve performance, but it is a shame it has taken so long to get this far. As always, the proof of the pudding will be in the eating and the success of the strategic review will be measured by the trust’s performance in the coming years.”
A good chunk of the trust’s future success depends on the stock picking skilfulness of the future appointed managers and WTW’s ability to blend complementary managers into a single portfolio, Troue argued.
While “many of the proposals seem sensible, there are other global investment trusts with long-track records, well established processes, and experienced fund managers at the helm, which are available to UK investors.”
