By Charlie Conchie
A takeover battle has erupted over ailing Swiss fund manager GAM today as a consortium backed by telecoms mogul Xavier Niel launched a counter bid to London-listed Liontrust.
Liontrust struck a £96m deal to buy the Swiss firm earlier this year but the consortium NewGAMe, which controls approximately 9.5 per cent of the issued share capital of GAM, has pushed back on the proposal aggressively.
The firm has today formally tabled a bid to snap up some 28m GAM shares, representing around 17.5 per cent of the firm’s issued share capital, at 49p per share.
The offer marks a 29.1 per cent premium on the value of the Liontrust offer and a a premium of 31.9 per cent on the closing price of the GAM shares on the 17th July.
“The announced offer gives a partial exit to shareholders who are concerned by the absence of an alternative to Liontrust’s inadequate offer,” Albert Saporta, director of NewGAMe, said.
“As GAM’s second-largest shareholder, we are convinced there is a significant upside associated with the successful restructuring of the company and are confident that GAM shareholders are better off remaining invested in the company,” he added.
NewGAMe slammed Liontrust for “grossly” undervaluing GAM and said its offer was “subject to execution contingencies, which make it highly unattractive”.
GAM has been on the ropes and has seen its assets more than halve since 2018 to 68bn Swiss francs.
Liontrust declined to comment.
