The Securities Trust of Scotland is to be overhauled with a change in manager and investment objective, that will see its mandate shifted to global equities.

The move will see Martin Currie fund manager Alan Porter (pictured) take over from existing manager Ross Watson as the closed-end fund moves towards investing primarily in global equties.

The announcement comes after the investment trust board consulted Martin Currie and major shareholders over the changes.

The fund will now aim for  rising income and long-term capital growth by investing in global equities, and will change its benchmark from the FTSE All Share index to the MSCI World High Dividend Yield index.

If approved by investors the changes will be brought into effect from 1 August, with performance fee waived between August and the end of the financial year on 31 March 2012.

The performance fee will see be paid to 15 per cent of the outperformance of the net asset value per share of the FTSE All-Share index, capped at 0.75 per cent of year-end assets. A further 0.25 per cent could be added if the manager outperforms its peer group, with the total performance fee capped at 1 per cent of year-end net assets.

Simon Elliott, head of research at Winterflood Investment Trusts, said, 'It makes sense in as much as there is certainly demand for yield at the moment.

'UK equity income [funds] are quite concentrated in their holdings in names such as BP, Vodafone and the big pharma stocks.'

He added, 'Martin Currie has been moving away from UK [equity] mandates and I suspect this global equity mandate fits with the [rest of] the business.'