ZURICH (Reuters) – GAM Holding AG blocked the attendance of a sacked fund manager, whose suspension for suspected due diligence failings last year prompted a collapse in the Swiss-based fund manager’s share price, to its annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday.

Tim Haywood said he had purchased shares in March or April and that GAM had told him on Wednesday that a procedural error in registering his shares had caused him to be excluded.

Haywood had traveled from Britain to attend the meeting.

GAM was not immediately available for comment. Only correctly registered shareholders have a right to attend Annual General Meetings.

Haywood said he wished to attend so that he could vote against the acceptance of the annual report – an agenda item for the meeting – on the basis that it contained, in his view, erroneous accusations against him.

GAM accused the fund manager of failing to do or record correct due diligence on investments.

Haywood said he rejected the charges of misconduct and said GAM’s accusations against him were hurting the company’s effort to repair its damaged reputation, which had contributed to outflows from GAM funds of billions of Swiss francs.

“The GAM narrative is not going to change until they treat me fairly,” Haywood told reporters in a hotel lobby outside where the meeting was being held.

Reuters reported last week how a GAM whistleblower who alerted British financial regulators about Haywood’s behavior did so over concerns about the purchase of more than half a billion pounds worth of bonds which were backed by around 22 million pounds ($28.67 million) worth of idle power generators.

Source: Read Full Article