Global win for Perpetual
Perpetual Investment’s new global equities arm has signed-up two key new wholesale clients in the Irish and Australian marketplace.
Dublin-based PI Investment Management Limited (PIIML) has been appointed an external manager on Irish Life’s investment product platform, and also underlying manager for van Eyk Research’s Blueprint International Shares Fund in Australia.
PIIML was founded by Perpetual last year after it cancelled its $2 billion global equities outsourcing deal with US mutual Fidelity Investments.
PIIML becomes only the third external investment manager to be added to the product supplier list of Irish Life, reported to be Ireland’s largest pensions and investment products distributor.
Irish Life’s funds management platform is reported to administer $8.3 billion and receives inflows of $500 million per annum.
PIIML’s appointment as underlying manager for van Eyk’s Blueprint International Shares Fund follows its award of an ‘A’ investment rating by van Eyk’s research and ratings team.
Its appointment brings to six — five active and one passive — the number of underlying managers on the Blueprint fund, a fund-of-funds multi-manager with more than $600 million under management.
The other manager on the fund are Alliance Capital, BGI, GMO, Macquarie and NCIT.
PIIML has been granted an initial allocation of approximately $35 million, 15 per cent of the fund, resulting in reduced allocations to the five existing managers.
Managing director Stephen van Eyk said PIIML’s “exposure to higher quality stocks would better position Blueprint in the more difficult market we are expecting over the next year”.
“We anticipate that the global economy — particularly in the US and Australia — is entering a period of moderately rising inflation and reduced corporate margins and profit growth,” he said.
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