AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota
By Tommy Wilkes
LONDON | Thu Oct 6, 2011 11:02am BST
LONDON (Reuters) - Edward Bramson, the activist investor who won a bitter boardroom tussle to lead the board of F&C Asset Management in February, has been appointed executive chairman of the funds house after CEO Alain Grisay decided to retire.
Grisay, who has worked at the fund manager for over 10 years, the last six as CEO, will step down from the board and as CEO in May 2012, before retiring from the company at end-September, F&C said in a statement on Thursday.
F&C's board appointed New York-based Bramson as executive chairman for "an interim period with immediate effect", F&C said, with a gradual transfer of responsibilities from Grisay to Bramson between now and next year's annual general meeting.
Between now and Grisay's stepping down in May 2012, F&C's board could decide to keep Bramson on as executive chairman or appoint a new chief executive to replace Grisay, as well as add a new independent director to the board.
Bramson, whose Sherborne Investors vehicle holds almost 20 percent of F&C shares according to Thomson One data, is currently heading a strategy review of the business and is expected to report its findings later this month.
"On behalf of the Board I would like to thank Alain for his contribution during his years at F&C. He will leave with our best wishes for the future. We look forward to completing and implementing the strategy review and driving the business forward," Bramson said in the statement.
The news of Grisay's departure will not come as a surprise to many. Grisay has sold F&C shares he owned and pocketed cash rather than stock under vested share schemes since opposing Bramson's appointment as chairman in February.
F&C shares, which like other asset managers have fallen in recent weeks, were up 2.85 percent at 10:10 a.m., against a 2.24 percent rise in the FTSE 250 .FTMC.
Bramson has offered little indication so far of how he plans to shake up the fund manager, which runs more than 106 billion pounds in assets, weighing on investor sentiment towards the company's shares.
"Until the strategic review is announced (expected "during October 2011"), when we will hopefully be able to make a proper assessment of the group's strategy and so prospects, we continue to regard the stock as uninvestable," Numis analysts said in a note, maintaining their "Hold" rating.
(Reporting by Tommy Wilkes; editing by Chris Vellacott and Jane Merriman)
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