Alliance to close £110m private equity fund

ALLIANCE Trust yesterday announced it will pull the plug on its £110 million private equity fund with the loss of six jobs.

Head and founder of the fund, Raymond Abbot, along with two of his team, will stay with the business long enough to wind down the investments and commitments of Alliance Trust Equity Partners (ATEP), which the Dundee-based firm acquired at the height of the 2006 private equity boom.

In its most recent interim report, Alliance Trust said it was pursuing a strategy to reduce its quoted private equity holdings, although it made two new commitments in the first half of last year to European funds.

At the time it said draw-downs from the fund had been at a low level due to "subdued" market conditions.

The firm had stakes in funds such as the Climate Change Capital Private Equity Fund and as late as December announced a €20m commitment to European fund Argos Soditic, which specialises in supporting buy-out activity in the small to mid-sized corporate market.

The firm previously had stakes in firms such as the Edinburgh drugs firm Ardana, which went into administration in 2008.