Good morning, everyone. We'll make a start. May I begin by welcoming you this morning to GAM's 2022 results presentation. My name is David Jacob, I'm Chairman of GAM Holding AG. I'll begin by outlining the results of our strategic review, which you will have seen in our press release this morning. We'll follow this with Pete Sanderson, our CEO, updating you on how GAM has performed this year, followed by our CFO, Sally Orton, who will walk through some financials with you. We'll have a question and answer session via Webex chat. I think we move to the first page. As you will have seen already this morning, we announced that Liontrust Asset Management has made an offer for all GAM shares. I'd like to briefly walk you through how the board reached the decision to unanimously support this proposed acquisition.
GAM went into 2022 breakeven in terms of profitability, and we felt confident at the time that with the past issues behind us, we were positioned for a return to growth. Unfortunately, the return of inflation, rising yields, geopolitical tension, created a very difficult background for markets, which fell significantly in both the equity and fixed income asset classes. The reduction in our revenue, which resulted from this, outpaced our cost reduction program despite 30% costs taken out of the business since 2019. This put us into loss-making territory and made a return to profitability difficult under current circumstances. This resulted in a strategic review undertaken by the board and its advisors to consider the best way forward for the firm and all our stakeholders. GAM has some very unique attributes, particularly in regards to its strong product offering and its global distribution footprint.
We were seeking a solution where GAM could complement a potential partner who could help us capitalize on our advantages and reflect our unique culture. After a wide array of discussions, the board is confident that it has found that partner in Liontrust. The board is unanimously recommending the offer in the belief that it is in the best interest of all our stakeholders. The combined firm will be in a position to deliver growth in which all shareholders can participate in the future. GAM will benefit from the stability and support of being part of the combined business. Clients will benefit from access to broader ranges of strategies, services, and importantly, the stability that the financial strength of a combined firm will bring.
We believe that the offer from Liontrust will bring stability to our business, continuity to our product offerings and our portfolio managers, and capitalize on our geographic footprint, including our presence in Switzerland. The offer represents the best opportunity for our talented team of professionals to continue to provide clients with high conviction, active strategies designed to help them navigate the changed investment environment. The investment DNA of the two firms is very similar. Neither has a house view. Both have a culture of empowering, experienced, and opinionated investors operating under a framework of rigorous risk control. This transaction also offers the best opportunity to decisively address all of the recent corporate uncertainty that has surrounded GAM, and therefore deliver the growth that is essential to do justice to the talent that we have at the firm and our shareholders' faith in us.
The resulting business will have a strong balance sheet, a broader array of excellent investment products, and a global distribution footprint from which to deliver growth in which our shareholders can participate in the future. Additionally, transferring our third-party Fund Management Services business in Luxembourg and Switzerland to another provider will allow clients to benefit from uninterrupted service from a business committed to focusing on such services in the future. Liontrust is offering CHF 0.67 per a value of GAM share based on the volume weighted average price of Liontrust shares and the average over the past trading day, 60 days of GAM shares.
The offer prospectus is expected to be published on or around the ninth of June, and the offer to be open for a minimum of 20 trading days and to be subject to acceptances for at least 66⅔% of the fully diluted share capital of GAM during the main offer period. It will also be subject to approval by Liontrust shareholders at its AGM on seventh of July, 2023. We already have indications of support from shareholders holding around 20% of our shares, and we will work with Liontrust to ensure completion of the transition and a smooth transaction. Liontrust is committed to GAM's international presence and client relationships, particularly in Switzerland, which is so important to GAM's heritage.
As I hope I have made clear, the board of GAM Holding AG recommends this transaction unanimously and is convinced that it offers the best outcome for all our stakeholders. I will turn over to Peter now to take us to the full year results.
Thank you, David. As David had said, we started 2022 poised to capitalize on the hard work we'd undertaken to transform GAM and put past matters behind us. However, in a year which saw the first 10% loss for both U.S. equities and bonds, actually since the 19th century, markets were the main factor in driving our assets under management significantly lower, with the consequent impact of significant revenue decline, leading to an underlying loss for the firm in 2022 of forty-two and a half million Swiss francs. Our range of high conviction, actively managed strategy solutions were well placed to deliver for clients as we saw the end of the post-2008 environment of low inflation and quantitative easing give way to rising inflation and continuing global uncertainty, of course, against the backdrop of war in Ukraine.
We ended the year with many of our investment strategies performing strongly against their benchmarks over three years and a considerable amount of client interest in our products. Our IFRS loss was CHF 290 million for the full year 2022, compared to a loss of CHF 23.3 million for the full year 2021. The decline in assets under management drove a significant decline in net management fees and commissions revenue, which were at CHF 161.8 million for the full year 2022, down 22% compared to the full year 2021. Although margins for our investment management business held up at 51 basis points, the market impact meant that performance fees of CHF 3.2 million were much lower than in 2021.
We continued to reduce our costs and made a total of CHF 27 million savings for the full year 2022. The first quarter assets under management in investment management stand at CHF 23.3 billion, and this is slightly up on the end of 2022. We saw strong investment performance. 91% for our investment management AUM is now outperforming the benchmark over three years as of the end of March 2023, compared to 55% at the end of December 2022. Over the past three years, notwithstanding our financial challenges, we've put in place a robust operating platform, enhanced governance, and developed a market-leading approach to sustainability. Above all, our talented team of investment professionals have shown that they can deliver for our clients in the most challenging of markets.
As the world transitions from the post-financial crisis paradigm, into perhaps a more normal market environment, the GAM approach to high conviction active management is proving its worth. As part of Liontrust Asset Management, which has very similar investment DNA, our professional team will have an opportunity to continue to serve the interests of our clients. I'd now like to hand over to Sally to give you some more of the detail on the 2022 financial results.
Thank you, Peter. Thank you, David. Good morning. As David and Peter stressed, it's been a very challenging year throughout 2022 from a financial perspective. We did see benefits from the new operating platform, maintained client interest, but it was not enough to help against the decline in revenues driven by the known market movements and AUM decline. As Pete mentioned, we suffered an IFRS loss of 200 million Swiss francs for the full year when compared to 23.3 million Swiss francs for the full year in 2021. We took steps in the year to reduce our costs. At the half year, we announced that we'd be further reducing expenses, total expenses by at least 20 million Swiss francs, which we have achieved.
We've delivered CHF 27 million of savings, and together, over the last few years, since 2019, we've reduced our costs by a third. However, given the market performance this year, these efforts have not been enough to improve our financial position and to see us return to the desired underlying profitability in the medium term. We've taken the determination that this won't be possible without additional strategic measures. Moving on to our investment management AUM. We have, during the course of this year, taken two different courses of presentation for AUM. At the half year, we presented the AUM in four classes, asset classes rather than six.
At the year-end, we've also changed our method of presentation, where we are no longer counting an additional level of AUM, where there were historically two levels of fees. The presentational change has resulted in a representation of prior periods, such that the opening AUM at December 2021, as now stated at CHF 31 million, adjusted from CHF 31.9 million, and our AUM on the presentation basis now adopted at year-end is CHF 23.2 million. Two-thirds of the reduction in AUM have been driven by the negative market movements, predominantly in the first half of the year and foreign exchange movements. Against the investment management AUM, that is a CHF 5 billion movement, together with net client outflows of CHF 2.6 billion.
The level of outflows is the lowest absolute and relative basis of outflows that the firm has seen since 2018. In the Fund Management Services, AUM was CHF 51.8 billion at December, down from CHF 68 billion at the end of last year. This movement is largely driven by the negative market moves in the foreign exchange that contributes CHF 10 billion of that reduction, and we also saw net client outflows of CHF 5.9 billion. The outflows are primarily due to an announced tranche, final tranche of a client that has moved their services away for strategic reasons. That CHF 5.9 billion includes CHF 2.5 billion of unannounced client exit. Moving on to management fee margins.
Pete's mentioned, we've maintained our management fee margins earned on the investment management business during the year at around 51 basis points, comparing to 52.7 in the prior year. The margin reduction's primarily due to the mix of client in and outflows, and the different margins across that fluid activity this year. In Fund Management Services, the management fee margin increased to 4.3 basis points. This compares to 4 basis points for the prior year. That improvement is also due to primarily reflecting asset mix. Turning to expenses. Already shared, you know, we have managed to reduce the general expenses over the year by CHF 27 million. Our underlying personal expenses were CHF 113.7 million, down from CHF 143.1 million last year.
This movement in personal expenses, as you would expect, is driven by a lower level of headcount, at 541 FTE at year-end. This is 10% lower than the same point the previous year. Underlying general expenses for 2022 were CHF 75.8 million, slightly up from the prior year, which was CHF 73.2 million. This is a result of a combination of an increase in professional and consulting expenses offset by lower other general expenses. The increase in professional consulting expenses is primarily driven by the strategic initiative costs that we've incurred in the year, as you might expect, and also, another CHF 3 million in respect of outsourced services. The strategic initiative costs were CHF 3.2 million in respect to general expenses.
IFRS general expenses for 2022 were CHF 81.8 million, down 6% from CHF 86.7 million in the prior year. This difference of CHF 5.3 million is due to mainly those strategic initiatives and an onerous software contract charge. Turning to the IFRS net loss. As already highlighted, the IFRS net loss after tax for the year was CHF 290 million. Underlying net loss after tax, CHF 39 million. A large component of the difference is in respect of after-tax non-core net expenses of CHF 251 million. This is significantly comprised of a brand impairment, which we first shared at the interims in June. The total brand impairment net for the year is CHF 223.5 million.
We also have an adjustment due to a recoverability assessment of the deferred tax assets against our result of CHF 27.2 million. Turning to cash and capital. Our cash at year-end was CHF 137.9 million. This compares to CHF 234.8 as at December 2021, a decline of 41%. This is the consolidated cash position, and if we look to the underlying parent company's stand-alone cash position, so for GAM Holding AG, the cash in the year declined 75% from near CHF 20 million, CHF 19.6 at December 2021, to a level of CHF 4.9 million at December 2022.
On this chart, we also share the position of adjusted tangible equity, where over the course of this year, we've seen the adjusted tangible equity decline from CHF 174 million to CHF 69 million at year-end. A combination of these factors, the performance, financial performance in the year, the position of our cash, and the tangible net equity of the firm over the course of this performance year, you can see why the reasons why the board has concluded the need to pursue strategic options. It's apparent with the market backdrop, combined with our results, as already highlighted, particularly cash and capital positions, that really was the catalyst behind the board recommending the strategic options and to sell our business to Liontrust.
With that, I will hand back to Pete, who, together with David and I, will take your questions. Thank you.
Thank you, Sally. Thank you, David. As Sally mentioned, the Q&A function is available on the Webex. We will hold the call open for a moment just to see if there are any questions that you'd like to put to us this morning. Just to reiterate, in order to submit a question, you would need to submit it via the chat function, which actually is under the Q&A panel in the Webex browser. If you open the Q&A panel, you'll see that you can type into a text box there, and we'll be able to pick up the question. Thank you for the first question, which perhaps I'll direct to David, in relation to shareholders.
The question is: can we expand on the role or discussions with Xavier Niel's shareholder group?
Thank you, Peter. At the moment, I wouldn't propose to discuss interactions with any shareholders. We do, of course, take note of their announcement and our subsequent announcement last week. We have an ongoing program of dialogue with shareholders, and we do hope to be in touch shortly.
Thanks, David. Next question I'll direct towards Sally in relation to our cash levels. The question is: why is the bulk of the 137 million Swiss francs of cash not available for general purposes? To Sally, if you would talk about that, please.
Thank you, Peter. Good question. Thank you. Across the group where we are regulated in multiple jurisdictions, we are required to hold minimum capital requirements, working capital, to be able to, you know, support the businesses in all the locations that we are sort of benefiting from, our sort of business model. Due to that, CHF 137 million is predominantly focused on supporting those regulated businesses around the globe. As such, it's not available for general purposes, and not all of that is considered surplus. Thank you.
Thanks, Sally. Okay, just two more questions coming in. One question, which perhaps I'll take and maybe David can add to. The question being: don't you think that you could reach the turnaround on your own? I think the answer to that is that, you know, we've had a very clear strategy over the past few years to simplify the firm and focus it across, certainly across the cost base. As David said, we've achieved a sort of 40% saving over those years in terms of the cost of the business. Clearly, under the pressure of markets and declining revenue, in my view, it became quite clear that to complete that restructuring path would need a strategic solution.
As such, I think the board review has identified an excellent partner, who I think can unlock value, that we all know is within this platform. I think, in my mind, very clear, that that was the right option and actually the only option, to safely unlock value from this point.
Pete, I might just add that in answer to that, Peter and the team have done a great job in positioning us as much as possible for a growth and a turnaround on our own. As I indicated, we were confident when we went into 2022 that that was the case. The subsequent decline in markets, however, meant that our own position became increasingly fragile particularly with reference to the share price and as Sally has mentioned, the difficulties in moving cash around the business. Increasingly, we found ourselves spending more time with clients talking about the company and the health of the company than our product range, and that was going to be an inhibitor for growth.
The strategic solution, like the Liontrust deal, allows us to unlock that significantly.
Thanks, David. Next question, which again I think I'll take. David, in your earlier comments, you mentioned that the Liontrust acquisition would help the stability of GAM's business and also the continuity of our product offering. The question is: has Liontrust given any guarantees on preserving your product range? Certainly I can say that all the discussions we've had with Liontrust have been very constructive. We are both very excited about how our fund ranges sit alongside each other. We think they're very complementary. I think, you know, that there's very good grounds for believing that that combined product range will move forward without significant change. Certainly we're very excited about the combination, not just on product, but also in terms of the very complementary fit and expansion across distribution capabilities.
The next question that we have relates to the offer itself in terms of the value. The question is that offers for firms being acquired are typically at a premium. Is the offer of VWAP by Liontrust a regulatory requirement? Are offers at premium not permitted? Certainly, offers at premium are permitted. David, I don't know if you want to talk to that view on value briefly.
Sure. The offers below the VWAP to VWAP are not permitted from a regulatory perspective. I think it's important to think about this offer in the context of where our shares were trading prior to the leak and speculation in the press. If you do the run-up to April 18th, we were trading in a 50-60 region. The four weeks prior to that, we averaged something like 53. The deal was struck as we've indicated, at 67. Obviously, it's a share for share deal. Both sides of that will move around from time to time, and you won't know final results until done is done.
Again, I think this is a good proposition and a very good proposition in value terms as a result.
Thanks, David. question on FMS, which I'm happy to take. Is there likely to be a consideration for the Fund Management Services business, which is being transferred? I'd say that we have a very good plan with a very strong partner for that business. The final terms of that are still under negotiation, so I wouldn't go into further detail on that at this point. We're very confident that we have a very good continuity and client focus solution for that business. We will be releasing more on that in due course. More questions around the valuation, I think David covered that already.
There is a question, do you have an alternative solution if the deal with Liontrust is not accepted by your shareholders or the Liontrust AGM? I'm certainly happy to start answering that, and I think David perhaps to finish. I think given the quality of the board strategic review and the range of options reviewed, I'm certainly very confident that this is the right transaction for GAM across all the stakeholder groups. I certainly hope we can make a very compelling case for why we've chosen that and why that support is unanimous.
I might just add, Pete, I think this is a very attractive deal for both parties. I believe, I hope that the Liontrust shareholders will see that the firms are exceptionally complementary. This gives Liontrust an acceleration on their path to a global footprint. It really is a step change in terms of their global reach. It's a fully complementary product line. Both parties have excellent investment DNA in them. We've got great distribution and heritage in many parts of the world. Distribution agreements together with Liontrust gives us the growth reach as well. I think this is a significant opportunity for Liontrust, and as we've discussed, a very important and attractive opportunity for all our stakeholders as well.
Thanks, David. Not seeing any further questions, I propose to draw an end to the Q&A session, and close the call. Thank you so much for joining us and for your time and attention this morning. I know there's a lot going on in markets. We really appreciate your interest in the firm, and wish you all a good morning. Thank you. Thank you, everyone.