GAM shareholders voted in favour of the proposed board members at the extraordinary general meeting held today (27 September).
The former board members, including GAM's former CEO Peter Sanderson, all elected to step down from their roles after the collapse of Liontrust's takeover bid for the firm.
The EGM was convened to allow investors to vote on proposals put forward by NewGAMe, which has a near 10% stake in GAM and fought against the Liontrust takeover attempt.
Shareholders approved the appointment of Antoine Spillmann as chair of the board, who was CEO and partner at Bruellan, part of NewGAMe.
GAM investor group changes CEO candidate day before shareholder vote
The shareholder group, along with Rock Investment SAS, entered into an agreement with GAM to provide financing for the asset manager with NewGAMe offering to increase its funding from the already agreed CHF 20m needed to repay the group's loan from Liontrust. to CHF 100m, on the condition that NewGAMe's proposed candidates were elected to the board.
All the proposed candidates were elected today.
Newly appointed board member Anthony Maarek is managing director of NJJ Holding, the personal holding company of Xavier Niel, which owns Rock Investment SAS, the French-incorporated entity which controls NewGAMe.
GAM convenes EGM and urges investors to back NewGAMe proposals
In the statement, GAM confirmed it would be taking on the CHF 100m funding from Rock Investment as a mixture of short- and long-term loans.
The newly formed board will begin operating with immediate effect, and GAM said it would hold a second EGM once the process for NewGAMe's partial tender offer for up to 17.5% of GAM's share capital is completed.
Additionally, shareholders also approved the formation of a compensation committee.
Maarek, along with fellow new board members Fabien Pictet and Jeremy Smouha, will form the committee.
The new chair was a former managing partner of Fabien Pictet and Partners Global Holdings.
The new appointments will hold their roles until GAM's next annual general meeting in 2024.
Two other measures were rejected by shareholders: the creation of conditional capital and the increase of the capital range.
Rock Investment had proposed that the company increase its share capital by a maximum aggregate amount of CHF 3,992,063.25 by issuing a maximum of 79,841,265 shares at a value of CHF 0.05 each to help aid GAM's "urgent need of liquidity and the fast evolving situation of the company".
The current order of new shares was outside the proposed limit, but clients also voted against extending it.
