Resilient investment performance through volatile period
Results for the six months ended 30 June 2025
| Six months to 30 June 2025 | Year to 31 December 2024 | Change | |
| Share Price | 1,222.0p | 1,244.0p | -1.8% |
| Net Asset Value (NAV) per Share | 1,281.9p | 1,304.9p | -1.8% |
| NAV Total Return | -0.7% | 13.3% | |
| Total Shareholder Return | -0.7% | 14.3% | |
| MSCI ACWI | 0.6% | 19.6% | |
| Discount to NAV at period end | -4.7% | -4.7% |
Key Points
- NAV Total Return of -0.7% and Total Shareholder Return of -0.7% vs 0.6% for MSCI ACWI.
- Discount remained stable at 4.7% and narrower than the industry and the Association of Investment Companies’ Global sector averages.
- Second interim dividend of 7.08p declared, the total of the first two interim dividends declared for 2025 is 14.16p (2024: 13.24p), representing an increase of 6.9% on the same payments for 2024.
- Barring any unforeseen circumstances, it is anticipated that the Company’s third and fourth interim dividends will be at least equal to the first and second interim dividends, meaning that the annual dividend for 2025 will increase for the 59th consecutive year.
Dean Buckley, Chair of Alliance Witan PLC, commented:
“It has been a hectic six months, marked by volatility and shifting investor sentiment, and I am pleased to report that the Company’s investment performance has remained resilient.”
About Alliance Witan PLC
Alliance Witan aims to be a core investment that beats inflation over the long term through a combination of capital growth and a rising dividend. The Company invests in listed, global equities across a wide range of different sectors and industries to achieve its objective. Our investment manager, WTW, blends the top stock selections of some of the world’s best active managers into a single diversified portfolio designed to outperform the market while carefully managing risk and volatility. Alliance Witan is an AIC Dividend Hero with 58 consecutive years of rising dividends.
Interim Report for the six months ended 30 June 2025 (unaudited)
Our Performance – Financial Highlights as at 30 June 2025
| Share Price | Net Asset Value (‘NAV’) Per Share |
| 1,222.0p | 1,281.9p |
| Share Price Total Return1 | NAV Total Return1 |
| -0.7% | -0.7% |
| Discount to NAV1 | First Two Interim Dividends for 20252 |
| 4.7% | 14.16p |
1. Alternative Performance Measure.
2. Total dividends declared in the period.
3. for the six months ending 30 June 2025
Notes:
NAV Per Share including income with debt at fair value.
NAV Total Return based on NAV including income with debt at fair value and after all costs.
Source: Morningstar and Juniper Partners Limited (‘Juniper’).
Chair’s Statement
After a hectic six months, in which President Trump’s on-off tariffs and conflict in the Middle East caused considerable uncertainty and sharp swings in equity markets, your Company’s investment performance has remained resilient. It produced a NAV Total Return of -0.7% in the six months to the end of June, which lagged the return of 0.6% from our benchmark, the MSCI All Country World Index, when measured in sterling. Returns from the index and the portfolio in US dollars were much stronger, but the appreciation of sterling versus the US dollar reduced the value of those returns when converted to sterling.
Although discounts in the investment trust industry have started to narrow, they remain wide by historical standards across much of the sector. Our discount, however, continues to trade much narrower than the sector average and has remained remarkably stable. It started and ended the period at 4.7%, supported to some degree by buybacks of 4.9m shares, equivalent to 1.2% of the number of shares in issue at the start of the period. Consequently, Total Shareholder Return was the same as the NAV Total Return.
There were some notable shifts in the sources of return in the first half of the year, with US growth stocks losing their market leadership in the first quarter to better value opportunities in Europe and the UK, only for some to recover in the second quarter and deliver strong returns over the full six months as tariffs proved less draconian than feared.
It is somewhat encouraging to see a broadening out of returns from equity markets, even if only within the first quarter, compared with the highly concentrated drivers of recent years. However, share prices in the first half of this year reacted to rolling news from Washington and abrupt shifts in sentiment rather than corporate fundamentals.
We remain positive about the prospects for performance from here. In the Annual Report we talked about a number of ‘hidden gems’ in the portfolio, namely stocks which have been delivering strong earnings growth, although this has yet to be fully reflected in the share prices. That is largely still true today, six months into this year.
A full analysis of the Company’s investment performance can be found in the Investment Manager’s Report on pages 9 to 13 of the interim report.
Second interim dividend
We have announced a second interim dividend for 2025 of 7.08p per share (2024: 6.62p). The total of the first two interim dividends declared for 2025 is 14.16p (2024: 13.24p), representing an increase of 6.9% on the same payments for 2024. This level of dividend is well supported by the Company’s investment strategy and its significant distributable reserves, which stood at over £3.5bn as at 30 June 2025.
Barring any unforeseen circumstances, it is anticipated that the Company’s third and fourth interim dividends will be at least equal to the first and second interim dividends. This would result in a total dividend for the 2025 financial year of at least 28.32p per share which, based on the Company’s share price of 1,222.0p as at 30 June 2025, would represent an annual dividend yield of 2.3% and a 6.1% increase over dividends paid for the financial year ended 31 December 2024. The Company is, therefore, on track to deliver its 59th consecutive annual dividend increase.
Board changes
As announced to the market on 16 July 2025, Vicky Hastings stepped down as a Non-Executive Director of the Company with effect from 31 July 2025.
On behalf of the Board, I would like to thank Vicky for her enormous contribution to the Company and wish her well in all her future endeavours.
Shareholder engagement
I am delighted to let you know that we will be holding an investor forum at the office of our Investment Manager, WTW, in Lime Street, London on Thursday, 9 October 2025, when shareholders will be provided with an investment update from WTW and will hear presentations from two of our Stock Pickers. An on-line live feed will also be made available for shareholders unable to attend in person. Shareholders wishing to attend the investor forum in person or view the live feed will need to pre‑register. Further details of the investor forum and how to register will be made available on the Company’s website in due course.
If you have not yet done so, I would encourage you to subscribe to receive the quarterly newsletter, monthly factsheet and other news and events.
Outlook
With the returns from equities broadening out and if geopolitical tensions continue to ease, we look forward to markets behaving more rationally. But there are still many risks ahead, including slowing growth in the US, the possibility of tariffs feeding through to higher inflation and further policy surprises from the White House. With events moving so quickly and unpredictably, we believe that this reinforces the need to keep gearing mostly unchanged, to invest broadly and to focus on high-conviction stock picking to add value.
The Board is confident this approach will ultimately produce better long term returns for shareholders than chasing the latest macroeconomic trend or trying to avoid the next obstacle. As the first half of the year showed, sentiment and market leadership can shift quickly over short periods of time from one investment style, sector or country to another and back again, but it’s the performance of individual companies that determine share prices in the long run.
Dean Buckley
Chair
31 July 2025