new chief executive officer says “the shot clock is on” to prove to vocal shareholders that the private equity investor can narrow the large gap between its stock price and the underlying value of its assets.
The task is clear: To show that Onex’s share price, which closed at $82.85 on Thursday and values the company’s private equity investments at 40 to 45 cents on the dollar, can trade at a price much closer to the total value of its assets, which Mr. Le Blanc pegged at about $132 a share. On Thursday, he also conceded that Onex’s 2019 acquisition of boutique wealth manager Gluskin Sheff and Associates Inc. for $445-million was a failed gambit. Gluskin had a captive audience of high-net-worth clients, but also suffered from high costs and outdated technology systems, and “we weren’t able to grow the revenue to keep up with that cost structure,” Mr. Le Blanc said.