Gam is planning to make 17 employees from its Lugano-based equities team, including several fund managers, redundant as it shutters five funds worth €285m (£220m).
Following a review of its team structure, the Swiss manager decided to liquidate a quintet of funds deemed either to be too small to be managed efficiently or have limited growth prospects.
Among the funds to wind up on the chopping block are the Gam Star European Alpha, Gam Absolute Return Europe Equity and Gam Star European Momentum funds run by Gianmarco Mondani and Paolo Longinotti.
The Gam Star Global Alpha fund, run by Davide Marchesin and Aldo Meroni, and the GAM Star Convertible Alpha fund, managed by Jonathan Stanford, will also be wound down.
Gam said it intends to close the funds and return money to clients in a matter of weeks.
Mondani, who is head of the non-directional equity team in Lugano, will leave the business, along with 16 other employees, including the managers on the strategies Gam has decided to close and those in various support and operations roles.
Commenting on the redundancies Gam said: “We would like to thank them all for their professionalism and long track record of serving our clients. They each leave the firm with our best wishes.”
Gam ‘realigns’ global equities desk
The job cuts and fund closures come amid a reshuffle of Gam’s global equities desk.
The “realignment” sees Jian Shi Cortesi, who manages the Gam Asia Focus and Gam China Evolution strategies, and Gam Star Merger Arbitrage manager Roberto Bottoli transfer into the global equities team, headed up by Mark Hawtin. Swetha Ramachandran, who runs Gam’s Luxury Brands Equity Strategy, will also come onboard.
Hawtin has over 37 years of investment experience and has been with Gam since 2008. He currently runs the $835.4m Gam Star Disruptive Growth and $82.5m Gam Star Technology strategies.
Gam said Hawtin will lead an initiative “to create a broader forum to exchange expertise, knowledge and ideas” between the team. It also plans on adding extra research and analyst resources to provide support.
After factoring in the new additions, the global equities team will oversee $2.5bn of assets.
