Abrupt end at Evergreen
Chris Conkey watched money managers stream out the door at Evergreen Investments a year ago and then restocked the Boston firm with new talent, including at least one certifiable star. Now Conkey is out at Evergreen.
Conkey, who had been chief investment officer at the firm that manages $281 billion, will officially leave in a couple of weeks, but he wasn't at his office yesterday. Evergreen's chief executive, Dennis Ferro, is assuming Conkey's duties on an interim basis at the investment company owned by banking giant Wachovia Corp.
An Evergreen spokeswoman described the departure as a "mutual agreement" between Conkey and Ferro. It was disclosed in an internal company memo yesterday. Conkey didn't return a call to his home.
A year ago, a steady stream of investment talent was leaving Evergreen. At least 17 managers and analysts, in some cases whole investment groups, pulled up stakes. Some departures were encouraged, but others were real losses.
Conkey, who oversaw more than 300 investment people at Evergreen, spent months analyzing why some leave money management firms and how to attract others. He recruited new managers who filled holes and fit in with the company's mix of in-house expertise and investment boutique subsidiaries.
Conkey hired Andrew Cestone from Deutsche Asset Management to run Evergreen's high-yield investment business. He brought in Rob Junkin from John Hancock to lead its healthcare investment strategy. Most notably, he hired star junk bond manager Margie Patel away from Pioneer Investments to run the Evergreen Balanced Fund and other investment products.
Once Conkey hired Patel in April, he described the process of restocking Evergreen's investment talent mostly done. Now he's gone.
Evergreen spokeswoman Laura Fay declined to describe Conkey's departure. "The role has changed," she said. "It's evolved as we've grown." Fay said Evergreen's next chief investment officer will be focused on more client contact, risk management, and product innovation.
She said Evergreen's performance was strong in some areas, but the company was seeking above-average returns in a broader range of investment categories.
. . .
Why did the price of Affiliated Managers Group Inc. stock fall off a cliff in the closing minutes of trading Tuesday and then bounce back yesterday?
Shares of the Beverly investment company were worth about $122 each with less than 10 minutes to go in the trading day Tuesday, then plunged to close at $113 in the absence of any company news. They bounced back, more or less, to close at $118.61 yesterday.
Here's why: AMG shares were slipping in the closing minutes of trading Tuesday, down to $120.42. Then someone placed an order, to sell 120,000 shares without restriction, at 3:59:59, literally the last second of the stock market session. In fact, it was the last trading second of the month and, for some investment firms, the final tick of their fiscal year.
It was a big order for a stock that trades about 400,000 shares on an average day. The market specialist who handles AMG stock took several minutes to match it with a number of standing offers, starting with the best price available and working down. The last price, required to complete the order, was $113. The seller got the stock off his books, but the prices left a lot to be desired.
AMG shares bounced back in after-hours trading Tuesday and changed hands at more than $120 in the market's first hour yesterday.
The Red Herring
Good luck, Bob Pozen.
The Securities and Exchange Commission's advisory committee to improve financial reporting meets for the first time this morning. Pozen, the chairman of MFS Investment Management, is also chairman of the SEC's committee. The idea: Make financial information more useful and easier to understand. Who would argue with that?
