All is not well at Guggenheim, one of the largest US money mangers.
All is not well at $240 billion money manager Guggenheim Partners.Ten senior staffers have left the company and returns have suffered in the past 15 months amid a power struggle between the firm's two top executives, according to reporting from Sujeet Indap, Kara Scannell and James Fontanella-Khan at the Financial Times.
Mark Walter, the founder and CEO, is reportedly at odds with Scott Minerd, the CIO and face of the firm, over recent changes to the institutional distribution unit, a division of the firm that serves as a go-between for Guggenheim's money managers and its major investors.
The controversy reportedly began when Alexandra Court, a Walter loyalist, was promoted to lead the institutional distribution team last year and made sweeping changes that cut costs but also alienated Minerd's money managers.
Minerd's camp believes Court was emboldened to make the changes because of a close relationship with Walter. Company executives told the FT that a relationship between Court and Walter was disclosed to the board of directors, while a Guggenheim spokesman told the FT that no "non-business" relationship exists, but that if it did, it was properly disclosed to "avoid improper influence or favour."
Its investment management division saw year-over-year revenues decline to $765m, according to an investor memo from June seen by the FT.