Five main GAM shareholders suffer losses of $840m

The Zurich-listed group's shares have plummeted 80% since reaching a high of nearly CHF18 early last year, predominantly in the fallout from bond manager Tim Haywood's suspension in July following an internal investigation into issues relating to his risk management procedures and record keeping, the FT reports.

Other troubles affecting the firm over the past couple of years include being the target of an activist campaign, suffering a shareholder revolt over executive pay and two profit warnings.

GAM's five biggest shareholders collectively own just less than 36% of GAM shares. The firms — Silchester International Investors, Kiltearn Partners, T Rowe Price, and Swiss investment banks UBS and Credit Suisse — have lost about CHF835m, based on the FT's analysis of Bloomberg data and public filings.

GAM's top shareholder Silchester, which has a 19% stake, has suffered a loss of almost CHF430m based on the difference between the 2018 high and Wednesday's close of CHF3.55.

The London-based Silchester is one of the biggest shareholders in several listed asset managers including Jupiter, Man Group and Janus Henderson.

Credit Suisse told the FT it only held GAM shares on behalf of clients, which have collectively lost about CHF110m.

Kiltearn, an Edinburgh-based manager, has lost a similar amount based on public filings of its holdings while T Rowe Price has suffered a loss of about CHF95m and UBS is nursing losses of close to CHF90m.

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• Topics
• Investment
• Investment
• GAM
• due diligence
• shares