GAM has delayed the publication of its annual results for a second time this year as it continues advanced discussions with Liontrust Asset Management over a merger of the two firms.
The Zurich-headquartered asset manager announced this morning (24 April) that its results would now be published on 4 May, by which time the group expects the acquisition talks to come to a “successful conclusion”.
GAM said the delay would allow time to conclude the commercial discussions within its strategic review, and to finalise its annual report.
The Financial Times reported on Saturday (22 April) that Swiss lender Zürcher Kantonalbank has also held takeover talks with GAM, citing “people familiar with the situation”. According to the FT, the bank said that it was “constantly examining opportunities within its business development strategy” but declined to comment on “rumours”.
Liontrust confirmed on 18 April that it intended to combine its investment management business with that of GAM.
Initially, GAM had planned to publish its results on 28 February, but postponed them until 25 April.
At the time, GAM chair David Jacob (pictured) said: “The board is working tirelessly to ensure that the firm is strategically positioned in the best interests of all our stakeholders, and for this reason we have decided to delay our results presentation in order to be able to provide a more informative update on our progress.”
The group still expects to report an IFRS net loss after tax of CHF 309.9m (£273m) for the full-year 2022, as well as an underlying loss before tax of CHF 42.8m (£37.7m), more than four times the CHF 9.6m (£8.5m) loss recorded a year prior.
