Edward Troughton, managing director, and Tom Pearson, director head of UK retail sales, say this is the most likely addition to the existing range.
Currently the firm offers a European Equity, North American Equity, UK Equity Income, and Monthly Income Bond fund under its own brand, with an additional two funds focused on Asia as the Premier Alliance Trust Asia Pacific Equity and Premier Alliance Trust Japan Equity funds.
Alliance Trust AM will be looking to apply the same two to three-year investment horizon on holdings in any additional funds it launches, Troughton and Pearson stress.
A key reason behind this approach is that it Alliance Trust Asset Management believes it is able to generate more alpha over time, says Troughton. The provider is also looking to avoid launching what it describes as products in response to fads in the marketplace for funds.
Performance of Alliance Trust Asset Management funds over 1-yr
Source: Financial Express Analytics
Other areas of interest include furthering the range of fixed income products, and absolute return, the pair suggest.
Appeal of IMA Absolute Return sector, 3-yr
Source: Financial Express Analytics
Whatever additional products are launched, both Troughton and Pearson say they are wary of allowing funds to become too large, something which they say could hamper performance.
For example, the recently launched Monthly Income Bond fund is likely to be capped at around £1.5bn, they say, because of the liquidity challenge that faces managers of fixed income funds that get much larger than this. This liquidity challenge manifests itself in, for example, the difficulties faced trading large portions of very large fixed income funds, Pearson adds.
Speaking about the business that is Alliance Trust Asset Management, Troughton says it is viewed as a long term investment by parent Alliance Trust. Therefore, given the relatively recent history of the asset manager, any sale of the business to realise a return for Alliance Trust is not under discussion. That said, if there were any future discussion on a sale it would most likely start around the ability for staff to buy into the business.