Investors in the Gam Greensill Supply Chain Finance fund have received 70% of their total assets back as the Swiss manager continues to wind up the fund following the implosion of Greensill Capital.
Last month, Gam announced it was liquidating the £605m fund with ties to Greensill Capital, after the Australian based supply chain company filed for insolvency.
The company, founded by financier Lex Greensill, was thrown into turmoil after Credit Suisse froze $10bn (£7.2bn) worth of funds linked to the firm following concerns over the “considerable uncertainties” about the valuations of some of the underlying holdings.
This included loans tied to British steel magnate Sanjeev Gupta’s company GFG, which were among the highly illiquid assets found in Gam’s now defunct Absolute Return Bond funds.
Former prime minister David Cameron is also embroiled in the Greensill saga after it emerged that he lobbied chancellor Rishi Sunak in an attempt to convince him to include Greensill Capital in the Covid corporate financing facility (CCFF).
Investors will get rest of money over next nine months
In its Q1 interim management statement, published on Wednesday, Gam said the remainder of the payments to investors will be distributed over the next nine months as underlying notes continue to mature.
Gam said: “The fund is an investment grade only strategy with payment obligations from globally recognised multinational corporations and has continued to receive all scheduled maturity payments from the notes in which it is invested.”
It added Gam’s associated run rate revenues from this fund were approximately CHF1m (£780,000) per annum. As of 2 March 2021, Gam (Luxembourg) SA as the appointed alternative investment fund manager has waived its investment management fees on the fund.
AUM dips slightly over Q1
Gam’s investment management AUM dropped during the quarter from CHF35.9bn to CHF35.5bn.
Net outflows for the period hit CHF989m, not including the Greensill liquidation which saw a further CHF800m fly out the door. However this was offset by positive market and foreign exchange movements of CHF1.4bn.
Specialist fixed income saw net outflows of CHF500m driven primarily by allocation decisions by clients in the Gam Star Credit Opportunities and Gam Local Emerging Bond funds. Total assets in this segment fell from CHF17.1bn to CHF16.3bn during the quarter.
Multi asset AUM also dropped slightly from CHF7.5bn to CHF7.4bn as inflows into its Multi Asset Active and Managed Fund Solutions strategies were offset by outflows from some institutional mandates.
Its equities business saw CHF200m inflows thanks to strong investment performance, mainly from the Gam Star Japan Equity, Gam Star European Equity and Gam Star Disruptive Growth strategies. AUM in equities ended the quarter at CHF7.6bn, up from CHF6.9bn the previous quarter.
Gam’s systematic business experience CHF400m outflows as clients pulled money mainly from Gam Systematic Core Macro and Gam Systematic Multi Strategy funds.
‘Encouraging client activity’
Gam group chief executive Peter Sanderson (pictured) said: “I am pleased with the continued progress of our strategy and, although we saw outflows in investment management, we are seeing encouraging client activity on the back of strong investment performance.
“We are delivering well on our highly scalable, efficient operating platform which enables us to leverage the growth opportunities offered by our market-leading strategies.”
In February Gam unveiled the Sustainable Local Emerging Bond strategy, the debut fund in its ESG lineup. Managed by Paul McNamara and Gam’s emerging market debt team, the fund currently has CHF277m in assets.
Portfolio Adviser revealed last month the Swiss manager had poached Rob Page from Janus Henderson to become head of marketing and client experience.
