CFS quant venture with Acadian goes retail

Australian equities funds available through Colonial First State’s joint venture with US-based asset managers Acadian will be offered to Australian retail investors for the first time in March.

The two funds — a long short fund and a long only fund — will initially only be available through CFS’s First Choice platform.

Quantitative manager Acadian Australia was formed midway through last year in a joint venture between Boston-based Acadian Asset Management and the Commonwealth Bank-owned CFS.

But unlike CFS’s deal with boutique manager 452 Capital, the Acadian funds will not be fenced off.

“Inevitably, the funds will be available on other platforms,” said Acadian Australia chief executive Chris Clayton.

“But our initial focus is to get both funds available on First Choice, so I don’t think we’ll see them anywhere else for at least another six months.”

A wholesale version of the long only fund has been operational in Australia since November last year and, according to Clayton, has already attracted the interest of some large institutional investors.

Clayton said Acadian was not fazed by the reluctance of Australian research houses to rate the funds because they are so young.

“Firstly, Acadian is a 20-year-old global business, which uses the identical investment process for its global funds, and that has been extremely successful and has already attracted strong ratings.

“Also, many of the institutional consultants have already looked at the [Australian] funds, and institutional support is a good indicator for the retail market.”