Hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic, the Swiss asset manager is doubling up on efforts to slash its spending.

Zurich-based GAM targets at least 65 million Swiss francs ($67 million) in cost cuts by year-end, the company said in a statement on Monday. This represents a dramatic deepening of a current program to slash spending by 40 million francs, and comes against the backdrop of an asset bleed.

Under new CEO Peter Sanderson, GAM's assets slid to 112.1 billion francs at the end of last month, from 132.7 billion at year-end. The company said this was mainly due to the wider slide in financial markets, as well as foreign exchange swings.

«GAM has not been immune to some of the toughest market conditions the industry has seen, and we saw our assets under management decline as a result of the COVID-19 crisis,» Sanderson said.

Stanching Withdrawals

Though it won 1.2 billion francs in its white-labeling fund business, this was wiped out by by 6.5 billion in withdrawals by investment management clients. The company flagged «early signs of recovery, both in terms of asset flows and also in the investment performance of our funds.»

For GAM, the coronavirus pandemic and ensuing market turmoil is a blow to recovery efforts. The asset manager still employs 869 people – which analysts view as far too many, particularly in middle- and back-office functions outside of portfolio management and sales, for the funds it manages.