Star Traders’ Stumbles Give Europe a Lesson in Key-Person Risk
- Fund blowups at GAM, Woodford have shaken asset managers
- Firms are moving to add co-managers, improve controls
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Europe’s money managers have learned a tough message from the meltdown at Swiss investment firm GAM Holding AG and the travails of former star stock pickers such as Neil Woodford: A single person can bring down the whole firm.
GAM lost almost 40% of its assets and three-quarters of its market value since it suspended Tim Haywood, who ran some of the firm’s biggest bond funds. Woodford, who froze his fund after veering into unlisted equities, has since announced plans to shutter his eponymous investment firm.