With the deal approved by both sets of shareholders, Witan’s investors got 0.224615 of a new Alliance Witan share for every Witan share that they held (based on formula asset values of 1274.592460 pence for Alliance Trust and 286.293752 pence for Witan).

Willis Towers Watson has appointed Jennison Associates as an additional stock picker for Alliance Witan’s multi-manager global equity portfolio, taking the total number of stock pickers to eleven.

New York and Boston-based Jennison was founded in 1969. It has $210bn of assets under management and specialises in investing in companies with exceptional growth prospects. Jennison previously managed part of the multi-manager global equity portfolio of Witan before the merger.

Jennison’s allocation of approximately 5% of the portfolio has been largely filled from a subset of the stocks which it managed within Witan. Most of the balance of Witan’s portfolio has been handed to BlackRock, which is acting as transition manager, for realignment. However, with two managers in common between Alliance Trust and Witan – Veritas Asset Management and GQG Partners – there have also been some other in specie transfers of stock which will be retained.

The overall risk profile of the Alliance Witan portfolio will remain largely unchanged from that of the Alliance Trust portfolio before the deal, reflecting the continuation of the distinctive multi-manager approach previously employed. There will be no major regional, style or sectoral biases relative to the market, with most of the added value designed to come from stock picking.

ALW : Newly merged Alliance Witan appoints new stockpicker