ALLIANCE TRUST FINANCE LTD

Alliance Trust Finance is a self-managed investment company with investment trust status. With headquarters in Dundee, Alliance Trust Finance, a FTSE-100 company has been investing since 1888 and is the largest generalist UK investment trust by market value listed on the London Stock Exchange. As at 31 July 2009, it managed assets of nearly £2.3bn.

Our focus is to generate superior returns for shareholders over the medium to long term through a combination of capital growth and income. We have no fixed asset allocation benchmark and we invest in a wide range of asset classes throughout the world to achieve our objective.

Our objective at Alliance Trust Finance is to be a core investment for investors seeking a long term store of increasing value. We allocate our capital across a broad range of asset classes to enhance and preserve total returns and to provide shareholders with real growth over the medium to long term. We can use investment techniques such as gearing and hedging to enhance returns and reduce risks within our portfolio.

Alliance Trust is a self-managed investment company with investment trust status. Our objective is to be a core investment for investors seeking increasing value over the long-term.
We have no fixed asset allocation benchmark and we invest in a wide range of asset classes throughout the world to achieve our objective. Our focus is to generate a real return for shareholders over the medium to long term by a combination of capital growth and a rising dividend.

How We Achieve Our Objective
We have no fixed asset allocation benchmark and we invest in a wide range of asset classes throughout the world to achieve our objective. Our focus is to generate a real return for shareholders over the medium to long term by a combination of capital growth and a rising dividend.

We pursue our objective by:

 * Investing in both quoted and unquoted equities across the globe in different sectors and industries;

 * Investing internationally in fixed income securities;

 * Investing in other asset classes and financial instruments, either directly or through investment vehicles; and

* Investing in subsidiaries and associated businesses which allow us to expand into other related activities.

We are prepared to invest any proportion of the total corporate capital in any of the above asset classes, subject only to the restrictions imposed on us by the regulatory or fiscal regime within which we operate. However, we would expect equities to comprise at least 50% of our portfolio. Changes to the asset allocation will be dependent upon attractive investment opportunities being available.
Where market conditions permit, we will use gearing of not more than 30% of our net assets at any given time.
We can use derivative instruments to hedge, enhance and protect positions, including currency exposures.

Investing for generations
'The independence, the entrepreneurial flair, the international investment emphasis and the single minded drive for shareholder value have been in the Alliance character since its origins in 1873' (John Newlands, Put not your trust in money - a History of the Investment Trust Industry, AITC, 1997).


1873 - Early beginnings of The Alliance Trust
A group of Dundee businessmen, who had made their fortunes in jute production, formed a venture to lend money to immigrant farmers in Oregon in 1873. This was the first of several Dundee land and mortgage companies.


1880 - First seeds of The Second Alliance Trust
Originally called the Hawaiian Investment and Agency Company, this company specialised in mortgage business for sugar planters in the Hawaiian Islands. It subsequently expanded into mortgage lending in America.


1888 - Incorporation of The Alliance Trust
Three of the Dundee land and mortgage companies, namely the Dundee Mortgage and Trust, the Dundee Investment Company and the Oregon and Washington Trust (which was run from Dundee) combined to form the The Alliance Trust. From their roots lending money to farmer and sugar planters, the trust initially concentrated on US railway bonds, mineral rights and fixed interest securities.