Alliance trust defends performance record as dividend rises 3%

Alliance trust's board has defended its performance record in its annual results, with the trust increasing its divided by 3%, the 44th consecutive year it has grown.

Activist investor Laxey Partners has previously criticised the trust's "pedestrian" performance but in Alliance's annual results chief executive Katherine Garrett-Cox says changes made to the trust over the past three years are starting to pay dividends. Garrett-Cox says the 3% increase comes at a time when income from the FTSE All Share company has fallen by 3%. She adds the trust's share price and NAV reached three-year highs in early January, boosted by a stronger performance in the second half of the year with, NAV jumping 11.9%. The share price climbed 16.3% to 364p per share...