Unigestion, the boutique institutional asset manager with GBP 9 billion of assets under management, announced its collaboration with the Centre for Asset Management Research (CAMR) at Cass Business School, a renowned London-based institution ranked among the top producers of financial academic research in Europe. The initiative underlines Unigestion’s commitment to deepen its research capacity and will enable the exploration of new ideas which may lead to the development of innovative investment management techniques.
The research collaboration will see Unigestion sponsor CAMR’s annual conference in London in early December 2013, as well as a series of breakfast briefings throughout the year. Institutional investors, consultants and industry advisors will be invited to participate in these events and discuss implementation issues directly with the asset manager and academics. Unigestion will also provide funding for a number of Cass students to undertake internships at the company and conduct research on themes of interest that could have immediate practical implications for the company’s investment processes. Unigestion and Cass believe this collaboration will encourage a productive exchange of views between the worlds of academia and asset management for the benefit of institutional investors.
Fiona Frick, Chief Executive Officer at Unigestion, believes the collaboration will have important benefits for the company and its clients. She commented: “Unigestion has a long-standing academic tradition. We developed some of our strategies – such as our equity range – as a direct result of groundbreaking academic research conducted within our company and by others. This link-up with the CAMR at Cass is great news for us and our clients. We look forward to exchanging ideas with staff and students at one of the world’s elite business schools, and are confident the findings of the research will have important benefits for the way we manage our portfolios.”
Stephen Thomas, Co-Director of the CAMR at Cass Business School, added: “Cass has a world-class reputation, in no small part due to the quality of our research output. We’re delighted to have established this collaboration with Unigestion, a firm whose investment processes are firmly grounded in the findings of high-end academic research. We’re proud Unigestion will be working with us at our annual CAMR conference and expect some lively debate between our academics and Unigestion’s investment professionals at our new breakfast briefings. We hope these debates will result in some important and insightful findings. We look forward to developing our relationship further over time.”
The first breakfast briefing, discussing asset allocation between private equity segments, took place on 1st May at Cass Business School. It was introduced by Dr. Hanspeter Bader, Head of Private Equity at Unigestion and commented upon by Dr. Edgar Miller, a Senior Visiting Fellow of Private Equity at Cass. The second briefing is scheduled for September 2013.
