Perhaps they will be better times as well, but we’ll have to wait and see. Look for more to come, including a closer working relationship with the National Bank funds, of which she is also chief investment officer. Wilson has only been in her new post for two months, so these changes are probably only the beginning. The funds are now being run by a team, which will continue to use a growth approach towards stock selection. Her aggressive style worked well for both funds during the strong bull market of the late ‘90s, but has been out of sync recently. Both these balanced funds were managed by Shauna Sexsmith, who was seen as a major acquisition to the Altamira team when she joined the company in 1997. Altamira Balanced Fund, Altamira Growth & Income Fund.The last two years have been disasters, with losses of almost 19 per cent in 2001 and 19.7 per cent in 2002. But since gaining almost 48 per cent in 1999 by overloading on technology, the fund has been going downhill. In 1996, this fund was riding high, with more than $2.5-billion in assets. Altamira Equity, the company’s largest fund with $819-million in assets, is a mere shadow of its former self. Part of the problem is e blow delivered to Altamira’s growth-oriented equity funds by the bear market. In 30 months, Altamira had lost more than 40 per cent of its asset base, the main source of the company’s revenues. At the end of December, that figure had plummeted to just over $4-billion.
In mid-2000, the company had more than $7-billion under management. Altamira has been losing assets at an alarming rate. Her semi-retirement lasted only eight months before National Bank called with a challenge she couldn’t refuse: stop the bleeding at Altamira and get the company back on its feet. A Montreal resident who was president of TAL Global Asset Management for several years, Wilson had decided to take a few years off work to smell the roses. The catalyst was the appointment of the dynamic Gisele Wilson as Altamira’s chief investment officer in November. Everyone expected some changes would be made after fund manager Altamira was acquired by National Bank of Canada last year, but few could have anticipated the sweeping overhaul that saw the departure of several of the firm’s highest-profile managers and introduction of an entirely new approach to the way in which Altamira will operate its funds.
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