Alliance Trust investment trust has seen off a challenge to its voting system and share buy-back policy from hedge fund Laxey Partners. Laxey, which holds less than 2 per cent of Alliance Trust's shares, put forward the following two resolutions at last week's annual general meeting (AGM) in the hope that a majority of investors would rally behind it:
• The introduction of a formal discount control mechanism, which 67 per cent voted against; and
• The removal of scaling up in votes, which 69 per cent voted against.
However, Laxey is claiming a partial victory because prior to the AGM, Alliance Trust committed to a 'flexible' buy-back policy whereby it will repurchase shares at its discretion to control the discount to net asset value (NAV). Before this year Alliance Trust had only ever made two share buy backs.
Alliance Trust has also committed not to scale up votes in its savings schemes at AGMs, though this does not apply to other shares held by savings schemes members.
For further detail on Laxey's challenge see our story here.
