Gold-focused Sprott Inc. founder to step down as chair – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – April 8, 2017)

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Eric Sprott is stepping down as chairman of Sprott Inc. and will be replaced by lead director Jack Lee – a move that cements Mr. Sprott’s exit from his gold-focused asset management firm.

Mr. Sprott, who is in his early 70s and is one of Bay Street’s best-known maverick investors, has served as chair since 2010. As a long-time gold bull, his firm’s suite of hedge funds, mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) was built around his near-religious belief in the precious metal – a belief that was vindicated for a long time as gold bullion enjoyed an almost-decade-long bull market that started in the early 2000s and ran until the fall of 2012.

While he remains a major shareholder, Mr. Sprott’s exit from the board is being seen mostly as a symbolic changing of the guard at one of Bay Street’s most storied buy-side firms.

“After more than 40 years in the investment industry, I have decided to step down from the board in order to focus on my personal investments and my family,” he said in a statement on Friday.

For the past few years, Mr. Sprott has been slowly stepping back from the firm he founded. In 2015, he gave up his role as lead portfolio manager on signature Sprott equity and hedge funds, passing on about $500-million in assets to other managers.

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