Alliance fends off Laxey again

Shareholders at Alliance Trust rejected a proposal from the activist hedge fund Laxey Partners yesterday that called on the investment trust to outsource the management of its funds.

Although its rival Aberdeen Asset Management has offered to take over running the trust, nearly 80 per cent of shareholders backed Alliance's management, led by Katherine Garrett-Cox, who argued it was cheaper to manage inhouse.

At last year's AGM, Laxey called on Alliance to launch a share buy-back programme to try to close the discount between its net asset value – the value of its holdings – and its shares. That proposal was also rejected, but Alliance subsequently spent nearly £300m on buy-backs.