Clay Finlay to shut down

Clay Finlay, an international equity boutique, will be wound down over the coming months, and its $1.8 billion of assets will be returned to clients, said Thomas M. Turpin, president and CEO of the firm’s parent company, Old Mutual Asset Management. In a telephone interview, Mr. Turpin praised Rosalind M. Hewsenian, the former Wilshire Associates investment consultant brought in as Clay Finlay’s CEO in 2007 to revive a company that had been suffering through a period of underperformance. But he said market conditions and the economic environment had led to the difficult decision to discontinue operations. Asked if there had been any possibility of merging Clay Finlay into another of the firm’s 20 money management boutiques, Mr. Turpin said “we explored a number of different options,” but in the end there was no “natural fit” for the firm elsewhere in the organization. Winding down the company, with the interests of clients in mind, was judged to be the best option, Mr. Turpin said. The $1.8 billion in client assets the firm reported as of March 31 was down 67% from $5.4 billion at the end of 2007, hurt by plunging market valuations and net outflows of $263 million in the latest quarter, $480 million in 2008 and $1.5 billion in 2007. Ms. Hewsenian declined to comment beyond saying: “We made a collaborative decision, under difficult circumstances, to act in the best interests of clients.”