Alliance Trust PLC : Interim Management Statement

Alliance Trust PLC

18 November 2011

                               ALLIANCE TRUST PLC

                          Interim Management Statement

Objective

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.

Financial Highlights        for the 3 months to 31 October 2011

                              31 October 2011   % Change   Total Return (%)

 Share Price                      339.0p         (8.6)          (8.0)

 NAV per share (inc income)       406.3p         (7.5)          (7.6)

 Discount (inc income)             16.6%



Key Information
 Total Assets:       £2,717.5m       EPIC Code:                          ATST

 Net Assets:         £2,457.7m       Year End:                    31 December

 Total Borrowings:     £259.8m       Date of Incorporation:   21 October 1888

 Net gearing:             2.9%       Issued Share Capital:        606,681,146


Total Expenses Ratio (year to 31 January
2011):                                                         0.63%

Dividend of 2.141p   Paid: June, September, December, March



Review of the three months to 31 October 2011

During the three months to 31 October 2011, the total shareholder return was
down 8.0% and the NAV total return (with debt at fair value and inclusive of
income) was down 7.6%. In the wake of the turmoil that has hit equity markets
over the summer months, we have seen the discount widen slightly from 15.6% to
16.6%.

In the third quarter of the year, Alliance Trust bought back and cancelled
14.4m shares at a cost of £48.7m. The number of shares in issue therefore
reduced to 606,681,146 at the end of October, giving the Company a market
capitalisation of £2,056.6m. At the Annual General Meeting on 20 May 2011, the
shareholders authorised the Directors to buy back up to 15% of the issued
shares. By the end of October, 38.3m shares or 5.9% of the shares outstanding at
the time of AGM had been repurchased.

Alliance Trust also announced, at the AGM, that Lesley Knox will step down as
Chairman by the time of the 2012 AGM, after 10 years on the Board. The
Nomination Committee has seen a long list of candidates of an extremely high
calibre and good progress is being made. An announcement will be made in due
course.

The year end of the Trust will be moved to December from January, and the next
period end will be for the 11 months to 31 December 2011. The year end is being
changed in order to aid comparability with other Trusts.

Dividend payment dates are being brought forward in line with the change of year
end.  The Company has declared and paid two interim dividends of 2.141p per
share, paid on 30 June 2011 and 30 September 2011.  In the absence of any
unforeseen developments the Company expects to pay one further interim payment
of 2.141p at the end of December and a fourth interim payment of at least
2.141p at the end of March 2012, making a total for the 11 months to 31 December
2011 of at least 8.56p, an increase of 2% on last year, which will be paid out
of current year earnings.

Alliance Trust Asset Management
Over the past 3 months, Alliance Trust Asset Management has seen net cash
inflows of £7.3m. The vast majority of this has been raised by the Alliance
Trust Monthly Income Bond Fund. Approval has recently been granted by the FSA
for Alliance Trust Asset Management to launch a Global Thematic Opportunities
Fund, which will be managed by Ilario Di Bon and Juergen Lanzer. It is intended
that this will be launched in December 2011.

Alliance Trust Savings
Alliance Trust Savings continues to make good progress. It had its busiest ever
equity trading month in August, up 96% on August 2010 and up by 21% from the
previous highest ever month, tax year end in March 2011. While continuing to
provide very competitive pricing and service, a fixed annual charge of £25 was
introduced for its 34,000 ISA customers in August. There has been minimal
attrition as a result. It expanded the investments available on its i.nvest
platform to include international equities. There are now 21,000 overseas equity
instruments in 21 exchanges across 18 countries on the platform, making it one
of the most comprehensive offerings on the market. The move into the
intermediary and discretionary fund manager market continued with the launch of
its online advisor proposition. The number of accounts increased to 80,289.


Cumulative performance (%)
+-------------+--------+--------+-------+-------+-------+-------+
|             |   3    |   6    |   1   |   3   |   5   |  10   |
|             |        |        |       |       |       |       |
|             | Months | Months | Year  | Years | Years | Years |
+-------------+--------+--------+-------+-------+-------+-------+
| Share Price |  (8.6) | (11.1) | (2.7) |  38.4 | (6.7) |  20.5 |
+-------------+--------+--------+-------+-------+-------+-------+
| NAV*        |  (8.1) | (10.2) | (4.6) |  26.3 | (2.1) |  26.9 |
+-------------+--------+--------+-------+-------+-------+-------+
*NAV is calculated with debt at fair value and including accrued income, for all
periods except the 10 year NAV return, which is done on an ex-income basis

Source FactSet & Fundamental Data

Asset Allocation (%)
+--------------------------+-----------+-----------+
|                          | 31-Oct-11 | 31-Jul-11 |
+--------------------------+-----------+-----------+
| Equities                 |      91.7 |      94.1 |
+--------------------------+-----------+-----------+
| Fixed Income             |       5.0 |       4.7 |
+--------------------------+-----------+-----------+
| Private Equity           |       3.5 |       4.2 |
+--------------------------+-----------+-----------+
| Operating Subsidiaries   |       0.8 |       0.8 |
+--------------------------+-----------+-----------+
| Property                 |       0.9 |       0.8 |
+--------------------------+-----------+-----------+
| Cash                     |       7.6 |       1.9 |
+--------------------------+-----------+-----------+
| Other Assets             |       1.1 |       2.8 |
+--------------------------+-----------+-----------+
| Gross Assets             |     110.6 |     109.3 |
+--------------------------+-----------+-----------+
| Gearing                  |    (10.6) |     (9.3) |
+--------------------------+-----------+-----------+
| Net Assets (incl income) |     100.0 |     100.0 |
+--------------------------+-----------+-----------+
Source: Alliance Trust

Equity portfolio geographic breakdown (%)
+----------------+-----------+-----------+
|                | 31-Oct-11 | 31-Jul-11 |
+----------------+-----------+-----------+
| United Kingdom |      37.3 |      34.0 |
+----------------+-----------+-----------+
| North America  |      28.7 |      27.4 |
+----------------+-----------+-----------+
| Asia Pacific   |      18.9 |      20.8 |
+----------------+-----------+-----------+
| Europe Ex UK   |      15.1 |      15.2 |
+----------------+-----------+-----------+
| Other          |       0.0 |       2.7 |
+----------------+-----------+-----------+
Source: Alliance Trust

By raising cash from our Global and Emerging Markets portfolios we have
increased the relative percentage of equities in the UK and the US. We retain
exposure to emerging markets through our Asian portfolio.
Equity portfolio sector allocation (%)
+--------------------+-----------+-----------+
|                    | 31-Oct-11 | 31-Jul-11 |
+--------------------+-----------+-----------+
| Financials         |      18.9 |      18.7 |
+--------------------+-----------+-----------+
| Industrials        |      16.6 |      18.1 |
+--------------------+-----------+-----------+
| Oil & Gas          |      13.9 |      14.1 |
+--------------------+-----------+-----------+
| Consumer Goods     |      11.5 |      12.2 |
+--------------------+-----------+-----------+
| Health Care        |      10.5 |       9.6 |
+--------------------+-----------+-----------+
| Basic Materials    |       8.9 |       8.8 |
+--------------------+-----------+-----------+
| Technology         |       7.6 |       8.0 |
+--------------------+-----------+-----------+
| Consumer Services  |       5.2 |       5.0 |
+--------------------+-----------+-----------+
| Telecommunications |       4.9 |       3.5 |
+--------------------+-----------+-----------+
| Utilities          |       2.0 |       2.1 |
+--------------------+-----------+-----------+
Source: Alliance Trust

The largest sector exposures remain in Financials, Industrials and Oil & Gas and
although we have reduced some of the cyclical exposures we maintain a bias to
higher growth markets and stocks which should perform throughout the economic
cycle


Equity portfolio top 20 holdings
+------+---------+------+---------------------------+---------------------+
|Jul-11|Direction|Oct-11|Holding                    |% of Equity portfolio|
+------+---------+------+---------------------------+---------------------+
|   (1)|    -    |1     |Royal Dutch Shell          |                  2.7|
+------+---------+------+---------------------------+---------------------+
|   (2)|    -    |2     |GlaxoSmithKline            |                  2.4|
+------+---------+------+---------------------------+---------------------+
|   (3)|    -    |3     |BP                         |                  2.2|
+------+---------+------+---------------------------+---------------------+
|   (6)|   Up    |4     |HSBC Holdings              |                  2.1|
+------+---------+------+---------------------------+---------------------+
|   (5)|    -    |5     |Rio Tinto                  |                  1.9|
+------+---------+------+---------------------------+---------------------+
|   (4)|  Down   |6     |BHP Billiton               |                  1.7|
+------+---------+------+---------------------------+---------------------+
|   (8)|   Up    |7     |BG Group                   |                  1.6|
+------+---------+------+---------------------------+---------------------+
|   (7)|  Down   |8     |British American Tobacco   |                  1.6|
+------+---------+------+---------------------------+---------------------+
|  (10)|   Up    |9     |Prudential                 |                  1.4|
+------+---------+------+---------------------------+---------------------+
|  (14)|   Up    |10    |Unilever                   |                  1.3|
+------+---------+------+---------------------------+---------------------+
|  (13)|   Up    |11    |AstraZeneca                |                  1.3|
+------+---------+------+---------------------------+---------------------+
|  (20)|   Up    |12    |American Tower             |                  1.2|
+------+---------+------+---------------------------+---------------------+
|  (12)|  Down   |13    |Clean Harbors              |                  1.2|
+------+---------+------+---------------------------+---------------------+
|  (19)|   Up    |14    |Vodafone Group             |                  1.2|
+------+---------+------+---------------------------+---------------------+
|   (-)|   New   |15    |Standard Chartered         |                  1.1|
+------+---------+------+---------------------------+---------------------+
|   (-)|   New   |16    |Carillion                  |                  1.1|
+------+---------+------+---------------------------+---------------------+
|  (18)|   Up    |17    |New York Community Bancorp |                  1.1|
+------+---------+------+---------------------------+---------------------+
|   (-)|   New   |18    |Diageo                     |                  1.1|
+------+---------+------+---------------------------+---------------------+
|  (15)|  Down   |19    |Philip Morris International|                  1.1|
+------+---------+------+---------------------------+---------------------+
|  (17)|  Down   |20    |National Grid              |                  1.0|
+------+---------+------+---------------------------+---------------------+
Source: Alliance Trust




For Further Information, please contact:
Evan Bruce-Gardyne
Head of Investor Relations,
Alliance Trust PLC
Tel: [phone]
Email:[e-mail]
Web:www.alliancetrust.co.uk
James Leviton / Conor McClafferty
 Finsbury Group
 Tel: [phone]
 Email:[e-mail]
  Web: www.finsbury.com







This announcement is distributed by Thomson Reuters on behalf of 
Thomson Reuters clients. The owner of this announcement warrants that: 
(i) the releases contained herein are protected by copyright and 
    other applicable laws; and 
(ii) they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and 
     originality of the information contained therein. 
    
Source: Alliance Trust PLC via Thomson Reuters ONE

[HUG#1564830]