The owners of GAM have until July 25 to tender their shares in exchange for those of the British fund company Liontrust. The largest shareholder has now pledged its support for the transaction.

GAM's board of directors received backing for plans to sell its shares from its largest shareholder. British financial investor Silchester International Investors, which holds a 17.3 percent stake in the Swiss asset manager, is pledging to swap its GAM stake for those of Liontrust, according to a statement Thursday.

The move comes «in recognition of the strategic review carried out by GAM and in the absence of viable alternatives,» the statement from GAM read, with Silchester believing it's in the best interest of its clients.

The private equity firm has reportedly been a GAM shareholder since August 2011 and is familiar with both the asset management industry and GAM's global regulatory approval processes and management.

Silchester was previously a major shareholder in Credit Suisse, which was forcibly acquired by UBS in March. In 2018, the UK firm's stake exceeded the 3 percent regulatory reporting threshold.

Controversial Offer

«This reinforces the fact that this is the only offer available to GAM shareholders,» GAM chairman David Jacob said. «We are convinced the Liontrust offer provides the certainty of a path forward for all GAM stakeholders and expect that it will receive regulatory approval in due course.» The Board continues to strongly recommend the Liontrust offer to all shareholders

Acting against the takeover is a group of investors consisting of the French-speaking Swiss companies NewGAMe and Bruellan, which hold around 9.4 percent of GAM. They reject the valuation of the Liontrust bid as too low. The investor alliance wants to provide GAM with 25 million Swiss francs ($26.8 million) in fresh capital via a convertible bond to effect a turnaround.

July Deadline Approaching

Liontrust is offering 0.0589 of its shares for one GAM share, according to information made previously available. Based on the current price of Liontrust shares traded in London of 7.24 pounds ($9.39), it corresponds to around 48.2 centimes for one GAM share. The most recent price of Liontrust shares on the SIX Swiss Exchange was around 43 centimes.

The offer period started on June 28 and is expected to end on July 25, and at least two-thirds of the share capital must be tendered.