The big betrayal: How Hamish Douglass dumped the lion’s share of his Magellan stake

“I have full confidence in the Magellan investment team including the global equities team led by Nikki [Thomas] and Arvid [Streimann],” Douglass said in a statement on Tuesday.

You would have to wonder whether that feeling is mutual.

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And it isn’t clear whether Douglass is legally committed to this undertaking or the statement simply reflects his current plans.

He sold circa $10 million of Magellan shares in June – a transaction that required disclosure.

Future share sales won’t require notification, given he is no longer a substantial shareholder nor a director.

Nor will Douglass need to notify the ASX if he sells any investment in Magellan funds down the track.

The market’s response to Douglass’ sell-down was brutal – an immediate drop of more than 5 per cent.

His reasons for cashing in $118 million of Magellan stock was “family diversification”. While Douglass late last year confirmed the split with his wife, at that time he labelled the idea that he and his wife would liquidate their shareholdings as “absurd”.

Despite Magellan’s investment underperformance, the shares have been a nice little earner for Douglass.

Over the past two financial years, he has received Magellan dividends worth about $83 million and he trousered remuneration, including termination benefits, in 2022 of $8 million.

The market’s response to Douglass’ sell-down was brutal – an immediate drop of more than 5 per cent.

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Interestingly, the stock recovered during morning trade on Tuesday, suggesting that once the shock had been absorbed, investors took the news in their stride.

Magellan has had a more than 50 per cent fall in funds under management since September 2021 and over the past year, its share price has cratered 68 per cent.

The business continues to lose investment mandates and in October experienced net outflows of $2.4 billion. However, an improvement in the performance of its investments in October meant funds under management remained stable at $51 billion.

Led by a new investment team under the former Future Fund deputy chief investment officer George, the plan is to inject some stability back into the business and improve the performance of its offshore investment funds in order to cauterise the outflow of funds.

It’s a slow process made all the more difficult while stock markets around the world are experiencing extreme volatility and many large economies are facing into a recession.

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