Mercer creates global asset class research boutiques

Mercer has announced plans to create a number of global asset class research boutiques within its investment consulting business.

The “specialty” boutiques will initially cover equity, fixed income, real estate, bond and alternative assets.

According to Mercer, the new structure means a significant investment will be made in people and infrastructure, with the current 80 employees in research set to increase by a dozen over the next year, while the business has plans to more than double staff in the real estate and alternatives areas.

Mercer has yet to announce who will head up the boutiques.

“With our large clients, the real competition is increasingly from specialty research firms who put all their resources into researching single asset classes,” Mercer investment consulting business global head Andrew Kirton said.

“By creating our own specialist teams … will be able to compete with specialist boutiques.

“In time, we intend to become the pre-eminent global research engine not only in equities and bonds but also in a number of asset classes in the alternatives space,” Kirton said.

Meanwhile, Mercer did not rule out a fee increase alongside the new boutiques.

“Greater expertise then allows us to charge more and invest more,” Kirton said.

However, this wouldn’t have an immediate effect.

“The added value has to come first,” Kirton said.