NEWSMAKER-Combative Duffield faces new battle over New Star
By James Molony
LONDON, Dec 1 (Reuters) - John Duffield set up New Star Asset Management NSAM.L vowing to put his fund managers' names in lights. Seven years on, his firm is in the spotlight, but for the wrong reasons.
The combative 69-year old Briton is battling to offload his company's 236 million pound ($354.8 million) debt pile to banks who may well end up controlling New Star in a debt-for-equity swap [ID:nL1259406].
It would be a huge wrench to cede any sort of control for Duffield, even if his stake has fallen below 10 percent, said Evolution Securities analyst Jason Street.
"It looks as though he doesn't have much choice... It is his baby though," Street said.
Duffield is no stranger to negotiating with bankers and has a tough side which the financiers involved in this week's debt talks may find aimed in their direction.
He is fighting to ensure the survival of New Star which debuted on the stock market in November 2005, priced at 225 pence per share.
Its shares rose as high as 492 pence but have lost virtually all of their value this year as clients, unsettled by the rapidly spreading financial crisis, pull their cash out of stock markets.
In 2000, Duffield caused uproar by comparing executives at Commerzbank to Nazi leaders in a spat over a 25 percent stake in fund manager Jupiter.
A six-month dispute with the bank was ended just days before a court case was due to start, media reported at the time, as Duffield hammered out a deal with new Jupiter Chief Executive Edward Bonham-Carter over dinner.
250 MILLIONAIRES
Duffield created New Star after first making a huge success of Jupiter, where his policy of large equity ownership among staff first made him a popular employer.
He claims to have created some 250 millionaires at both the fund houses he founded.
But the micro-manager, who pocketed some 200 million pounds from the sale of Jupiter, is known for shunning the trappings enjoyed by the City's wealthiest finaciers.
In February 2007, Duffield, whose office sits opposite the sumptuous Harrods department store in Knightsbridge, told the Daily Telegraph that he had yet to own a mobile phone and did not use a computer.
The newspaper also noted his prosaic taste in jumpers and cars: Marks & Spencer and Ford Mondeo respectively.
The value of Duffield's present company is hovering below the 40 million pound mark, way down from its 600 million pound valuation at its flotation in 2005.
Assets under management had fallen back to levels of about 16 billion pounds by the end of the third quarter this year -- almost at pre-IPO level -- after reaching 23.1 billion pounds at the end of 2007.
The group's shares slumped to 5.5 pence on Monday, as the London Stock Exchange refused to comply with New Star's request to halt trading during the talks. By the middle of 2007, the stock reached peaks around 480 pence.
With its strong focus on long-only retail equity and property funds Duffield's firm could hardly have been more vulnerable to the impact of the credit crisis.
Speculation has been rife as to whether Duffield will sell out in the wake of the turmoil with major players such as Aberdeen Asset Management (ADN.L) and Henderson Global Investors (HGGH.L) touted as potential buyers.
"He is not in a strong position, but ... the banks have to be very careful," said Evolution Secrities' Street.
"You're talking about a fragile business ... If the banks are too aggressive it will disintegrate in front of their eyes."
(Additional reporting by Joel Dimmock, Editing by Douwe Miedema and David Cowell)
