Gluskin Sheff & Associates Inc., the Canadian money manager that’s being shut down by Onex Corp., has earned its demise, says one of the men who co-founded it.
(Bloomberg) — Gluskin Sheff & Associates Inc., the Canadian money manager that’s being shut down by Onex Corp., has earned its demise, says one of the men who co-founded it.
“I mean they really deserved to go out of business,” Ira Gluskin said in an interview on BNN Bloomberg Television. Gluskin Sheff lost some of its most talented people over the years because “the culture was bad,” he said.
Gluskin started the business in 1984 with Gerald Sheff as an independent firm serving wealthy Canadians. Strong investment results, and Ira Gluskin’s frequent media appearances, turned them into big names in the Toronto financial sector. They took the firm public in 2006; it was worth more than C$1 billion ($740 million) at its peak.
Private equity firm Onex acquired it in 2019, but last month announced that the Gluskin Sheff private wealth teams will transfer to Royal Bank of Canada and the rest of the business will be wound down. In return, RBC’s agreed to carry Onex’s private funds on its list of available products for investment advisers.
Onex acquired Gluskin Sheff in an effort to broaden the reach of its private equity and private credit products beyond institutions.
Read More: Buyout Pioneer Schwartz Clings to Power as Pressure Rises
“Onex had one agenda — they wanted Gluskin Sheff to be their distribution arm to the high net worth world,” Gluskin said on BNN Bloomberg. “That’s perfectly legitimate but it’s not why the people came to Gluskin Sheff.”
Gluskin and Sheff wound up in litigation against their former firm over their retirement agreements. The two men were awarded C$14 million by an arbitrator in 2017, though they had been seeking a much larger amount.
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
©2023 Bloomberg L.P.