Investors in Alliance Trust are being asked to buy a pig in a poke. Still, sometimes even the least promising poke contains a healthy porker.
It is worth bearing in mind that back in the summer, when RIT Capital Partners made a highly tentative approach to buy the venerable investment trust, the shares were trading at around 520p. Had the deal gone ahead, it would have been a steal. At the time the net asset value was 561p. Yesterday the shares rose ½p to 620½p, still on a discount to net assets of almost 646p but less pronounced.
One would expect investment trusts to trade at a slight discount, but Alliance has been unable to buy back shares in the market while the strategic review