Alliance Trust has today accused its rebel shareholder Elliott Advisers of “misleading assertions” over its performance and cost base.

Elliott, part of the New York hedge fund, has named three nominees – Anthony Brooke, Peter Chambers, and Rory Macnamara – that it wants shareholders to elect to the board on the Dundee company at the annual general meeting on 29 April.

On Tuesday Elliott said the company’s earlier circular on performance”fails to engage on matters of substance and resorts to personal attacks in a manner unbecoming of directors of a public company”.

The Alliance board, led by chairman Karin Forseke (pictured), said it stood by the circular stating that on key measures it ranks in the top half of its peer group for the majority of the time periods most commonly referred to by investment professionals.

“We remain of the view that total shareholder return (TSR) remains the most relevant performance metric for the majority of our shareholders and that by delivering sustained, strong investment performance the company can narrow its discount to NAV [net asset value]  further and continue to drive returns for our shareholders.

“We are very encouraged that since the changes to the investment management team at the end of September 2014, the company has delivered strong performance which ranks it 9^th out of the 35 Trusts in the Morningstar global sector investment trust index on a NAV total return basis and 11^th out of 35 on a TSR basis. We are confident the investment team will continue this strong performance.”