Dan Loeb has expressed his support for embattled JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon. That’s according to a report from Andrew Ross Sorkin of DealBook (hat tip Julia La Roche of Business Insider).
Many calling for Dimon’s resignation
Sorkin points to numerous headlines suggesting Jamie Dimon should be fired, especially after it was revealed that the bank had to set aside $23 billion just to pay its legal fees. However, those whose opinions actually matter don’t appear to want him gone. In fact, many investors, board members, analysts and even regulators want Dimon to stay around, and hedge fund manager Dan Loeb is one of them. He interviewed several people who support Dimon, including Neuberger Berman managing director Marvin C. Schwartz, who called Dimon “one of the best C.E.O.’s of any company in the world.”
JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) posted its first quarterly loss under Dimon’s leadership, and he’s been in that position since the end of 2005. Nonetheless, in spite of that loss, the bank still managed to smash expectations in its latest earnings report.
Dan Loeb voices his support for Dimon
Among those Sorkin spoke with was hedge fund billionaire and activist investor Dan Loeb, who has a history of writing nasty letters to CEOs he disagrees with. He has also targeted many struggling companies with the aim of tossing their CEOs out. However, he doesn’t place Dimon in the same category as them.
“In my experience, they are meticulously ethical, and nobody has a more rigorous compliance effort,” he told Sorkin. “It’s a very large and complex company, and things will happen.” He also said Dimon is “being used as a scapegoat and piñata to satisfy some kind of bloodlust.”
Julia of La Roche of Business Insider notes that Loeb’s support for Dimon seems especially interesting because it doesn’t look like his hedge fund Third Point holds any shares of JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM), according to the firm’s latest 13F filing.
