The Wilson Asset Management empire is expanding with the arrival of a highly-regarded name from the sell-side: John Ayoub from Credit Suisse.
Undeterred after walking away from the proposed Century Australia Investments restructure (presumably leaving Perennial Value in the box seat there), the Wilson camp is pushing ahead on its large cap listed investment company, WAM Leaders.
Ayoub will join WAM portfolio manager Matthew Haupt on the large caps strategy, for which offer documents are expected to roll in during the first half of April. They are aiming to have raised between $150 million and $200 million of capital by early May and target opportunities in the S&P/ASX 200.
WAM has yet to reveal how much it is seeking to seed WAM Leaders. Although his three established LICs are all trading higher than the value of their assets, small caps doyenne Geoff Wilson is unlikely to rest easy. However, given the breathless rally in the ASX 200, launching a large-caps LIC on the heels of a bear market might not seem so contrarian in two months’ time.
Ayoub joined Credit Suisse’s research sales team in 2009. Prior to that, he was at Ord Minnett.