Alliance Trust PLC : News release issued by All...

14 May 2015

News release issued by Alliance Trust Savings Limited

Alliance Trust Savings Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Alliance Trust PLC. has today issued the below news release.

Contact details are included in the statement.

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Alliance Trust Savings accelerates its strategic ambitions through the acquisition of Stocktrade from Brewin Dolphin

Alliance Trust Savings (ATS) has today announced that it has entered into an agreement with Brewin Dolphin to acquire its execution-only stockbroking business, Stocktrade.  The proposed acquisition accelerates ATS's strategy and has the potential to add more than 48,000 new customers and £4.6 billion of new assets into ATS across three main channels; direct customers, intermediary customers and strategic partnerships.

SUMMARY

• Acquisition of Stocktrade by Alliance Trust Savings for £14 million
• Accelerates the delivery of ATS' strategy and increases scale substantially, providing access to up to 48,000 new complementary customers and deliver up to £4.6 billion in additional assets under administration
• Expected to transform ATS' current break-even profitability into meaningful profit in 2016 prior to integration costs
• Further strengthens ATS' position as one of the leading platform providers in the UK
• New strategic partnership channel expands ATS' expertise and reach

The acquisition of Stocktrade has the potential to significantly increase ATS' assets from £7.2bn to over £11.5bn and ATS' customers from 57,000 to over 105,000. This will enable ATS to drive further economies of scale as both businesses offer similar products and services to a complementary customer base.

The increased scale and access to new customers, combined with attractive cost and revenue synergies, will strengthen ATS's position in the rapidly expanding and increasingly competitive UK platforms market.  In addition to the platform business, Stocktrade also brings a strategic partnership channel with established relationships and existing management capability, enabling ATS to expand its distribution capability. The strategic partnerships channel consists of four main areas:

• Pension providers: telephone and online share dealing services to their underlying SIPP clients
• Building societies: offering both a telephone and online share-dealing service to their customers
• Company share schemes: primarily relates to share-dealing and custody services for companies offering share dealing to employees, or to services provided to Share Plan administrators and their clients
• Corporate ISAs: an ISA share-dealing service for employees of both US and UK companies

The transition of the business to the ATS platform will provide all customers with access to a high quality online automated platform supported by an award winning service team. The parties are working together to ensure a smooth transition for all customers to the ATS platform.  

Alliance Trust Savings will fund the acquisition price and additional associated regulatory capital of up to £8m in cash via an injection of equity from its parent, Alliance Trust PLC.  Completion of the transaction is expected to take place towards the end of the third quarter of 2015.

Patrick Mill, Managing Director, ATS, said:

"We are really excited about this acquisition. It demonstrates ATS' commitment to our ambitious growth strategy by extending our impact and adding value for the long term, with immediate effect. Our proposition, trusted brand, high levels of customer service and ability to respond to changing customer needs have enabled us to grow our business profitably. Already this year we've grown assets organically by 12% and this acquisition takes us to over £11.5bn in assets under administration.

"Stocktrade is a great strategic fit for ATS, giving us access to new customers, an increase in assets and the opportunity to build a strategic partnership capability. It also gives us the ability to align a traditional stockbroking business with our innovative, scalable and cost-effective approach by offering customers online access alongside our in-house customer service team. Our priority now is to focus on driving growth organically and profitably through the three channels, direct, intermediaries and strategic partnerships."

Katherine Garrett-Cox, Chief Executive, Alliance Trust said: 

"Alliance Trust's strategy is built on creating long-term and valuable relationships with our shareholders and customers. As set out in our vision 2020, our objective is to become the UK's most trusted investment and savings business. Over the last couple of months we have received a lot of valuable feedback from our shareholders.  We are currently analysing that feedback and we will update shareholders further at our interim results in July.

Our strategy for ATS is to grow the business organically, but when appropriate acquisition opportunities present themselves that fit with our stringent criteria then these will be assessed. The acquisition by ATS of Stocktrade is an example of us putting this strategy into action and pursuing our ambitious growth targets."

David Nicol, CEO of Brewin Dolphin commented:

"The sale of Stocktrade is a good result for shareholders, customers and colleagues. It is consistent with our strategy of streamlining and simplifying our business and will further enhance shareholder value by allowing us to continue to focus on growing our core wealth management service.

"We believe Stocktrade customers and colleagues will benefit from being part of an organisation that will provide further investment and enhancement of Stocktrade's service."

As part of the transaction the Divisional Directors responsible for Stocktrade, Graham Swan and Nicholas Pearson, will stay with the business in senior management roles. The existing Stocktrade team in Edinburgh will be transferring across to ATS upon completion, thus ensuring continuity of service for clients.

NOTES TO EDITORS

Key Financial Data		ATS	Stocktrade	Combined
Assets Under Administration	£bn	7.18	4.61	11.79
Revenue	£m	12.83	9.64	22.47
Customers		57,000	48,000	105,000
ATS AUA and customer numbers as at 30 April 2015.  ATS revenue for year ended 31 December 2014
Stocktrade AUA and customer numbers as at 31 March 2015, revenue for year ended 28 September 2014

About Alliance Trust Savings

Alliance Trust Savings is a leading provider of SIPPs, ISAs and Sharedealing Accounts. Shares magazine have awarded Alliance Trust Savings for having the 'Best Customer Service' in 2012, 2013 and 2014. Money Observer awarded them two best in category awards in 2014 for their SIPP proposition. Moneyfacts named them as Best Junior ISA Provider 2013 and highly commended in 2014. More information on Alliance Trust Savings and their products is available at www.alliancetrustsavings.co.uk.

As at 30 April 2015, Alliance Trust Savings administered over £7.2bn of assets.
Alliance Trust Savings is a subsidiary of Alliance Trust PLC.  Alliance Trust PLC was founded in 1888 and has grown to become one of the UK's largest generalist investment trust by market value.

Alliance Trust Savings Limited is a subsidiary of Alliance Trust PLC and is registered in Scotland No. SC 98767, registered office, PO Box 164, 8 West Marketgait, Dundee DD1 9YP; is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority, firm reference number 116115.  Alliance Trust Savings gives no financial or investment advice.

The content of this press release is intended for information only, and should not be relied upon for making investment decisions. Whilst every effort is made to ensure that the content of this press release is accurate at the time of publication, Alliance Trust Savings Limited disclaims liability for losses, disputes or claims which may arise as a result of the use of this information. This is not an indicator of the suitability or performance of any of the investments included.

About Alliance Trust PLC

Our parent company, Alliance Trust PLC, is one of the largest generalist investment trusts by market value listed on the London Stock Exchange. Our focus is investment in global equities and fixed income, which we believe will deliver a combination of long-term growth and income to our shareholders. We have one of the longest track records of consistent dividend growth of any listed UK company.

Alliance Trust PLC currently conducts its affairs so that its shares can be recommended by IFAs to ordinary retail investors in accordance with the FCA's rules in relation to non-mainstream investment products and intends to continue to do so for the foreseeable future. The shares are excluded from the FCA's restrictions which apply to non-mainstream investment products because they are shares in an investment trust.

About Brewin Dolphin

The Brewin Dolphin Group ("the Group") manages £29.6 billion of funds for over 100,000 private clients and of this £24.8 billion is on a discretionary basis. The Group has 28 offices throughout the UK and the Channel Islands.

Brewin Dolphin Limited is the principal operating company of Brewin Dolphin Holdings PLC. Brewin Dolphin Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and is a member of the London Stock Exchange.

Established in 1762, the Group is one of the UK's largest independently-owned private client wealth managers and provides a wide-ranging investment management and financial planning service for private investors, charities and pension funds.
Please see the Media Centre section on our website:

http://www.brewindolphinmedia.co.uk/media.aspx for more details  

Contact

For further information, please contact:

Evan Bruce-Gardyne		Nicola McGowan
Director of Investor Relations		Associate Partner
Alliance Trust PLC		Finsbury
Tel: +44 (0)1382 321169		Tel: +44 (0)20 7251 3801
Email: [e-mail]		Email: [e-mail]
Website: www.alliancetrust.co.uk		Website: www.finsbury.com

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This announcement is distributed by NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions on behalf of NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions clients.
The issuer of this announcement warrants that they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information contained therein.
Source: Alliance Trust PLC via Globenewswire

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