Former UBS Investment Chief Friedman Named CEO at GAM Holding
Sept. 2 (Bloomberg) — GAM Holding AG, the Swiss money manager that split from Julius Baer Group Ltd. five years ago, named Alexander S. Friedman, the former global chief investment officer at UBS AG, as its new chief executive officer in a push for growth.
Friedman, 43, who left Switzerland’s biggest bank in June after revamping its investment process, will replace David Solo on Sept. 8, the Zurich-based company said in a statement today. Solo is stepping down “at his own request,” the company said.
GAM wants to boost inflows into its investment-management business, as it seeks to increase annual net new money by 5 percent to 10 percent of assets under management. The company said in March assets under management dropped 2 percent as clients withdrew money from gold and money market funds.
“With the fundamental restructuring of the company now completed under David’s tenure, the next step in realizing our strategy will focus on increasing our recognition and market penetration in order to achieve the scale commensurate with the group’s potential,” Chairman Johannes De Gier said in the statement.
The shares dropped 2.8 percent in Zurich trading at 12:40 p.m. to 17.40 Swiss francs, valuing the company at 2.9 billion francs ($3.2 billion), paring this year’s gains to 0.3 percent.
The company said it will more actively promote its investment and distribution through sales and marketing, while its “overarching objective remains to grow profitability in a sustainable fashion.”
Friedman built up the investment office at UBS to make advisory services more transparent and boost returns after clients pulled 228.8 billion francs in three years through 2010 amid the financial crisis and an attack on Swiss banking secrecy. UBS reclaimed the title of biggest wealth manager in 2012 and last year attracted a net 53.5 billion francs in assets, the most since 2007.
–With assistance from Elena Logutenkova in Zurich and Giles Broom in Geneva.
To contact the reporter on this story: Carolyn Bandel in Zurich at cbandel@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Mark Bentley at mbentley3@bloomberg.net Steve Bailey, Jon Menon
