LORD Smith of Kelvin took quite a gamble last year when he asked Alliance Trust’s shareholders to allow him to turn the vehicle into that rarest of beasts, a multi-manager investment trust.

The shareholders took a gamble too by voting to okay the plan, but already their trust in him appears to be paying off.

With just nine months under the new regime included, the portfolio managed to outstrip its benchmark’s returns in the 2017 year, smashing its own outperformance target in the process.

This was, Lord Smith said, “encouraging against the backdrop of world markets which have been characterised by macro-economic and political uncertainty”.

Importantly, shareholders are obviously pleased with the changes too, with interest in the trust’s share buyback programme gradually dwindling over the course of the year.

Although he admitted that it is still too early to label the long-overdue make-over a resounding success, Lord Smith said he believes “the foundations are now firmly in place for Alliance Trust to deliver strong and sustainable performance for our shareholders for generations to come”.

At a time when the value of active asset management is increasingly being called into question, that is not a bad way for Alliance Trust to start celebrating its 130th birthday.