Analyst warns thatAlliance board is in‘last chance saloon’

THE board of Alliance Trust has been warned that it is in the “last chance saloon” to persuade investors it is the right manager of the firm’s £2.1 billion assets.

Under-pressure chief executive Katherine Garrett-Cox and her new chairman, Karin Forseke, face investors at the Dundee-based firm’s annual general meeting on Friday, when activist shareholder Laxey Partners will demand management is outsourced to another firm.

It will be the second year Laxey has demanded change at the trust after forcing the board to instigate a regular programme of buy-backs.

Although some in the City dismiss Laxey’s chief executive Colin Kingsnorth as a “greenmailer” – someone who is agitating to raise the share price to make a quick profit – there is frustration with the trust’s performance.

“The trouble is the underlying managers of the trust are just not good enough,” said one analyst.

“They are now in the last chance saloon – or they are knocking on the door. We really have reached that stage where they have to come up with the goods.”