Alternative asset manager GLG Partners has announced that it has accepted the resignation of star portfolio manager Greg Coffey, following apparently fruitless attempts to persuade him to
Alternative asset manager GLG Partners has announced that it has accepted the resignation of star portfolio manager Greg Coffey, following apparently fruitless attempts to persuade him to remain with the company.
Last week GLG was obliged to announce in a filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission that Coffey, an Australian national who is portfolio manager for the GLG Emerging Markets Fund, the GLG Emerging Markets Special Situations Fund, the GLG Emerging Currency and Fixed Income Fund and the GLG Emerging Equity Fund, had resigned his positions on April 14.
GLG, which became listed on the New York Stock Exchange last year following a reverse takeover, reported that Coffey had withdrawn his resignation the following day while he and the firm entered into discussions concerning ‘a range of options for the future’.
According to GLG’s latest announcement, Coffey will remain with the firm until October this year, during which time he will continue to manage GLG funds and participate in the succession process.
‘The best interests of our fund investors has [sic] been and will continue to be the primary concern of both GLG and Greg throughout this process,’ the firm’s statement said. ‘Greg will forfeit all of his unvested shares and unvested cash awarded to him under the company’s equity participation and long term incentive plan.’
Coffey currently manages around USD7bn of GLG’s assets under management, which totalled more than USD24bn at the end of last year, and his funds averaged a return of 29 per cent in 2007, according to Bloomberg.
The data provider says the Emerging Markets Fund was GLG’s best-performing last year with a 51 per cent gain, following a 62 per cent increase in 2006, although it has dropped 5.5 percent so far in 2008.
According to some estimates, Coffey generated around 60 per cent of GLG’s performance fees last year, and according to Institutional Investor’s Alpha magazine, he earned around USD300m.
GLG was created in 1995 as part of Lehman Brothers and became an independent firm in 2000. Following the announcement of Coffey’s departure the firm’s share price on the NYSE fell from USD9.03 at the market opening to USD7.90, but it subsequently rebounded to USD8.84, a decline of 2.2 per cent, by 11.02 a.m.
