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Thames River chooses to remain independent, Jones to step down

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London’s Thames River Capital LLP has chosen to remain independent following a strategic review by Chief Executive Glyn Jones, who is to st

London’s Thames River Capital LLP has chosen to remain independent following a strategic review by Chief Executive Glyn Jones, who is to step down.

At the time of Jones joining last year, it was agreed that he would leave USD 8.5 billion AuM Thames River in the event of it not going public at some future point and consequently he will now step down from his role as CEO with immediate effect and leave the company after a short handover period.

Charlie Porter, co-founder of the business and currently President, intends to resume the Chief Executive role that he handed over when recruiting Jones.

Commenting on the move, Charlie Porter said: ‘Glyn has played a key role in guiding Thames River to understand what our optimal structure and strategy should be to ensure the business continues to realise its full potential and I thank him for his invaluable contribution.  I fully support the conclusions of his review. By remaining private, we can continue to focus single-mindedly on the things that really matter to a business like Thames River; delivering for our clients outstanding investment performance and preserving a winning culture to ensure we continue to attract and retain the best talent within our industry.’

In October 2005, Thames River announced the launch of the strategic review of its business to be led by then newly appointed Chief Executive, Glyn Jones.  The objective of the review was to determine the optimal strategy to enable the business to build on its excellent investment performance and its record as one of London’s most successful specialist asset managers.

The key conclusions of the review are:

  • there are a number of significant opportunities that should be pursued to continue the company’s successful growth and these include launching a number of new funds from within the existing investment teams and starting a UK Equity team;

  • this development of the business should be supported by further investment in some functional areas – including strengthening certain operational management functions;

  • the achievement of Thames River’s key strategic objective is best served by remaining private rather than considering a listing – thus preserving the unique culture which has been so critical to the success of Thames River. This culture is based upon a combination of strong investment performance, client focus and real partnership amongst the company’s investment professionals.  The best interests of clients and key staff will be served well by maintaining the existing business structure and its associated cultural strengths and thus tightly controlling volume growth, preventing over-expansion and sustaining investment performance excellence.

Thames River stated: ‘Against this background and, in particular, the decision to remain a partnership, it was further concluded that the top management team is over-resourced for the direction and shape of the business that has been decided upon’.
‘The conclusions and recommendations of the strategic review have the full support of the senior fund managers, management team and the key shareholders in Thames River’.

Glyn Jones said: ‘The last seven months at Thames River have been fascinating and I have enormously enjoyed working with Charlie and his outstanding team. We have concluded unanimously that Thames River is a fundamentally sound business that does not need radical change.  Whilst there are a number of areas where we can continue to enhance the services and investment solutions we provide to our clients, it is critical that this be done by building upon the culture that has made Thames River so successful in the first place.  I wish Charlie and the team every continued success going forward.’

Background note: Thames River Capital LLP was founded in 1998 by Charlie Porter and Jonathan Hughes-Morgan with financial backing from Sir John Beckwith. It presently has assets under management of USD 8.5bn deployed across hedge and long only funds in seven investment capabilities – global emerging markets, global credit, European equities, Japanese equities, global bonds, property and hedge fund of funds.  It employs 103 people (all London-based) of whom 63 are investment professionals.

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