Liontrust kicks off hunt for new chair

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Liontrust is searching for a new chair, less than a year after its failed takeover bid for beleaguered Swiss rival GAM.

The UK asset manager has kicked off the search for a replacement for Alastair Barbour, who has been on the board since April 2011 and took over as chair in September 2019.

Barbour’s tenure on the board of Liontrust was the subject of a row last March, with fellow board members Emma Howard Boyd and Quintin Price resigning with immediate effect. People familiar with the situation said the pair had decided to leave after warning that Barbour’s tenure flouted corporate governance rules, which restrict board members to nine-year terms.

Barbour’s exit comes after 15 per cent of shareholders voted against his re-election to the board at the group’s annual general meeting last September.

In Liontrust’s annual report last year, Barbour said he would stand down no later than September 2025, but did not expect to remain in post for the entire period.

Liontrust declined to comment on his departure, which was first reported by Sky News.

The incoming chair will take the reins at a difficult time for the company, which is contending with industry-wide issues including the rising popularity of passive funds and a greater number of cautious investors turning to cash amid higher interest rates.

Some £3.2bn was redeemed on a net basis from Liontrust’s funds in the six months to the end of September, on top of £4.8bn pulled out in the year to March, according to company filings. Market moves and investment performance pushed assets down a further £3bn over the 18 months to the end of September.

The group is also dealing with the fallout from its doomed £96mn bid for struggling asset manager GAM, which fell apart in August after a battle with activist investors. Two-third’s of GAM’s shareholders voted against the deal.

The group’s shares have lost 50 per cent in the past year, and it was kicked out of the FTSE 250 in December.

Liontrust’s chief executive, John Ions, embarked on a spree of acquisitions in the past 12 years, buying seven firms as he attempted to diversity the group away from UK equities.