Swiss fund manager GAM is expected to report a full-year net loss of 380 million Swiss francs (€353.6 million) for 2020 due to an impairment charge announced last June.
The impairment charge totalled 377.7 million Swiss francs, meaning the firm expected to report a loss for a second consecutive year, following its net loss of 3.5 million Swiss francs in 2019.
In a business update published on January 18, GAM said it also expects to report an underlying pre-tax loss of around 15 million Swiss francs for the year – up from 10.5 million in 2019.
In the fourth quarter, the firm did report 300 million Swiss francs of net inflows – its first positive flows since the start of 2018.
Group assets under management also grew throughout the last three months of the year, increasing from 120.4 billion to 122 billion Swiss francs.
Chief executive Peter Sanderson said: “GAM has continued to make strong progress on our strategic plans despite the very challenging conditions of 2020. I am pleased to see this bear fruit with positive momentum in our investment management business during the fourth quarter.”
GAM has had a challenging two years, and suffered heavy outflows when allegations of misconduct at the firm came to light in 2018. The fund manager named former BlackRock employee Sanderson as chief executive in 2019 saying his hire was an attempt to put the firm back on track following an eight month search during which David Jacob was acting as interim head.
The full results for 2020 are set to be published on February 18.
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