Activist shareholders Newgame have withdrawn their proposals for GAM's planned Extraordinary General Meeting. A solution now seems more elusive.

The struggle for control at GAM continues. With its latest stratagem, investor group Newgame avoids a possible defeat at the extraordinary general meeting (EGM) and wants to wait and see whether Liontrust moves forward with its offer. This puts the ball back in the court of Liontrust's management.

Newgame initially called for the extraordinary general meeting (EGM) to decide on removing GAM's board of directors and replacing it with a new management team and finance GAM's funding needs through a convertible bond issue. The move was intended to block the takeover bid by British asset manager Liontrust and restructure the company plan.

All Proposals Withdrawn

Now the group, which includes multi-family office Bruellan, has withdrawn all the proposals it made, according to a statement Thursday, essentially rendering the August 18 shareholder meeting irrelevant.

Liontrust postponed the deadline for its offer several times, which now falls on August 23. The offer of 0.0589 Liontrust shares per GAM share isn't exactly being met with enthusiasm and attaining the necessary two-thirds acceptance threshold is hardly assured.

Offer Failure Speculation

The postponement would prevent GAM shareholders from drawing the consequences of the expected failure of Liontrust's offer and making an informed decision on the company's future, Newgame says.

Newgame is strongly advising GAM's board of directors to cancel the August 18 event rather than incur unnecessary costs and hold a meeting with an empty agenda, according to today's announcement. The only agenda items for the extraordinary general meeting are the proposals of the investor group.

This is obviously to wait and see whether Liontrust can still reach the required approval. The investor group, which controls around 9.6 percent of GAM's issued share capital, intends to request that a new extraordinary general meeting be held as soon as the results of the offer are known.