Alliance Trust Share Price (ATST) - Buy ATST Shares

Alliance Trust is an investment services firm listed on the London Stock Exchange and since February 2008 has been a constituent of the FTSE 100 share price index. The firm's history can be traced back to 1873 when several Scottish businessmen began to lend money to farmers in Oregon, called the Oregon and Washington Trust. This went on to merge with the Dundee Investment Company and the Dundee Mortgage and Trust to form the Alliance Trust in 1880. In 1923 another Dundee investment company, the Hawaiian Investment Company shared offices with Alliance Trust and became renamed Second Alliance Trust. The two firms did not merge until 2006 by which time their portfolio and policies had become sufficiently similar to allow for synergy.

By the mid 1920s the firm had withdrawn from the mortgage lending market to concentrate on investment management. The company did diversify again in the 1980s, this time into savings. This division now has over 40,000 customers with deposits of almost £5 billion. In the late 1960s the company introduced the first dividend reinvestment option, which is now common for share management services. The company's strength has continued into the 2000s due to its conservative approach. A sceptical view of the dot com boom at the turn of the millennium and a relatively small interest in Asia before the 1990s crash has allowed First Alliance to keep its focus on long term growth. Growth has also continued recently when the firm took over Wolanski & Co in 2005. In July 2008 the company managed over £2.6 billion worth of assets.