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Short Sellers Circle GAM as Fund Woes Send Shares Plunging

Short Sellers Circle GAM as Fund Woes Send Shares Plunging

(Bloomberg) -- Short sellers have increased bearish wagers on GAM Holding AG, the Swiss money manager that’s facing redemptions after it suspended bond manager Tim Haywood and moved to liquidate some of his money pools.

Short interest in GAM, a bet by investors that shares will fall, rose to 2.2 percent of outstanding stock as of Tuesday, up from 0.3 percent at the end of last month, according to data compiled by IHS Markit. GAM shares have lost about a quarter of their value this month alone and were down as much as 11 percent on Thursday after Credit Suisse Group AG analyst Tom Mills reduced his target price on the stock by 51 percent to 7 Swiss francs.

A GAM spokeswoman declined to comment.

Led by Chief Executive Officer Alexander Friedman, GAM told investors on July 31 that it had suspended Haywood, triggering a flood of redemption requests and forcing the firm to freeze affected funds. Some investors in separate strategies have started to bail out, pulling an estimated $2.3 billion through Aug. 17 from funds tracked by Bloomberg.

Short Sellers Circle GAM as Fund Woes Send Shares Plunging

To contact the reporters on this story: Nishant Kumar in London at nkumar173@bloomberg.net;Patrick Winters in Zurich at pwinters3@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Sree Vidya Bhaktavatsalam at sbhaktavatsa@bloomberg.net, Paul Armstrong

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