Arki Busson’s hedge fund gives up Swiss licence and cuts jobs
LumX had already been slimming down following years of losses
The embattled hedge fund group run by Arpad “Arki” Busson has given up its mutual fund licence in Switzerland and announced job cuts.
In a statement LumX said it has “decided to terminate its activities as a manager of collective investment schemes in Switzerland and has accordingly requested to no longer be regulated as such by the Swiss regulator Finma”.
It also disclosed it would cut “a single-digit number of employees in Switzerland” as a result, citing “investor trends and headwinds”.
The money manager will instead operate as an asset manager “as a member of the Swiss Association of Asset Managers”.
It is possible to manage assets in Switzerland without having a licence from Finma but managers need to be a member of a self-regulating body such as SAAM and are subject to restrictions. They may only manage foreign-domiciled funds on behalf of qualified investors with less than SFr100m ($99.8m) in open-ended funds and less than SFr500m in closed-end funds.
LumX, which provides risk analysis services and a managed account platform as well as investment management, has been slimming down following years of losses.
It reported a net loss of $4.5m in the six months to June last year. In 2017 it reported a net loss of $7m, the eighth consecutive year of losses for the group.
Mr Busson, executive chairman, said in the interim report he was “disappointed” by the results but added that the group was having “multiple conversations with large asset owners and asset managers interested in its technology for . . . risk analysis and regulatory reporting purposes”.
Mr Busson, who co-founded the children’s charity Ark, is well known for his philanthropic work and former relationships with Uma Thurman, the Hollywood actress, and Elle Macpherson, the model.
LumX had 48 staff at the end of June, down from 133 at the end of 2014. The company had $7.1bn in fee-earning assets at the end of June last year, less than half of the $18bn it managed when it was known as Gottex at the end of 2007.
The company declined to comment further on the announcement which it published on its website earlier this month.
The FT reported last year that UK asset manager Artemis, a top five shareholder, was looking to sell down its stake. It holds 5.8 per cent in LumX through its Artemis Alpha Trust. The UK fund manager declined to comment.
The biggest shareholder in LumX is Rozel Trustees, a Channel Islands-based trust, which owns about 26 per cent according to Bloomberg data. It could not be reached for comment. Quaero Capital, a Swiss fund manager and the second-largest shareholder with an 11.3 per cent stake, did not respond to a request for comment.
LumX, which will remain regulated by the UK Financial Conduct Authority, will report annual results next month.