GLG’s Stock Decaffeinated By Coffey’s Departure

Originally Published May 7, 2008 11:15 AM
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GLG Partners (GLG-NYSE) stock has been crushed by the pending departure of portfolio manager Greg Coffey. Has the stock overshot on the downside? That is what I am asking myself; Noam Gottesman’s comments today on the company’s conference call to discuss earnings would seem to indicate that GLG would only lose $4 billion of the $6 billion Coffey manages:

GLG said it expects clients to pull some of their assets from the firm that are managed by Greg Coffey, who announced his surprise plans to leave the firm later this year in April. Coffey manages about $6 billion of the roughly $24 billion in assets under management at GLG. “The noise and uncertainty surrounding Greg will have an impact as he managed $6.3 billion. I would expect the bulk of it to remain until his departure date,” GLG CEO Noam Gottesman said on a conference call Wednesday. He added that he hoped, over the long term, that the firm would retain at least $2 billion of the money Coffey manages. Earlier Wednesday, GLG reported that it swung to a first-quarter loss of $222.2 million, or $1.07 a share, from a year-earlier profit of $14 million, or 7 cents a share, due, in part, to the recognition of expenses related to the company’s merger with Freedom Acquisition Holdings in November Marketwatch

GLG’s valuation against its closest comp, Och-Ziff, appears to be excessively discounted, and if the Street gets comfortable with the situation stabilizing at GLG the stock might eventually recover some lost ground.

It is time GLG’s unheralded staffers to step up, certainly there has to be a superstar in the bunch, ready to assume Coffey’s throne.

GLG sees outflows following departure of Coffey
Marketwatch

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