Perpetual appoints Charles River for Australian asset management business
Perpetual has appointed Charles River – part of State Street – to manage the front office operations of its Australian asset management business.
This will see it adopt the Charles River Investment Management Solution (Charles River IMS) to manage its domestic and global portfolios, order and execution, compliance, post trade processing, and front office data.
It said Pendal, which was acquired by Perpetual last January to become one of Australia’s largest asset managers, is a long-term client of Charles River, having worked together since 2002. It also felt Charles River could understand the challenges and complexities of running an investment management business.
Perpetual Group chief operating officer, Craig Squires, said: “This is an important partnership that ensures the streamlining and simplification of front office operations within Australia on a single OMS platform with Charles River.
“Charles River has proven solutions supporting a multi-boutique business like Perpetual. Its multi-asset capabilities, particularly across Australian and global fixed income markets, are critical for us to grow our business globally.”
Dennis Baillon, director of business development APAC at Charles River, added: “To be successful in today’s market, managers need a platform that provides flexibility in their operating environment and enables them to scale as their business requires.”
Last week, Perpetual announced it is merging the multi-asset businesses of Pendal and Perpetual to create the Perpetual Multi Asset Strategies Team.
The new team will be led by Perpetual’s current head of multi-asset, Michael O’Dea, and marks the departure of Michael Blayney as the portfolio manager of these funds.
The new Perpetual Multi Asset Strategies team will consist of nine “highly experienced investment professionals” with an average industry experience of 23 years.
“We are bringing together the Perpetual and Pendal multi-asset teams as one enhanced team with greater scale and resources to support better client outcomes,” the firm said in a statement.
“This team will be uniquely placed to build investment solutions to meet emerging client needs by accessing the combined intellectual property and experience of both the Perpetual and Pendal multi-asset teams.”
Last year, chief executive Rob Adams announced the firm is undergoing a strategic review of its asset management division. This included changing up its group executive team with a simplified asset management structure and leadership.
In its results for the six months to 31 December, the firm said it saw net outflows of $4.3 billion compared to net outflows of $2.9 billion in the first half of 2023, a rise of 48 per cent.
Some $2.1 billion came from its US equities products and $1.4 billion came from global and international equities ones.
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Laura Dew
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