Putnam Wants Buyer to Keep Management in Place

Having entrusted its board of directors to have a great deal of input on the possible sale of Putnam Investments, the chairman of the board, John Hill, told the Boston Globe that the board would like to find a buyer that will keep management in place. While it isn’t a requirement that management stay on, Hill added, it is preferable, since the company is finally showing signs of renewed strength.

That would likely mean that Putnam CEO Charles “Ed” Haldeman would stay in his position, a role in which he has said he would like to continue to serve.

“The Putnam fund board could not be more supportive of Putnam and the team that Ed has created to manage our shareholders’ funds,” Hill said. “Any successful bidder clearly will have to be acceptable to Putnam management to be acceptable to our board.”

Haldeman joined the company in 2003 following the ouster of Larry Lasser due to the market-timing scandal.

It’s been a tough hall for Haldeman, with the company losing $140 billion in net withdrawals since 2003. October was the first month in all this time that the company finally experienced net inflows.