Factset Asia Pacific is increasing its Sydney headcount by one-third in response to several new client wins for its portfolio analysis software.
White Outsourcing is the latest to licence Factset for its mostly boutique funds manager clientele. White’s division director for investment operations, Andrew Harrison, said Renaissance Capital was among the first of its clients to be using Factset for the purpose of creating historical performance attribution. The boss of Sydney’s nine-person Factset office, David Simpson, said the US-based provider had recently surged above 40 local clients, after starting eight years ago to service a single global client in Morgan Stanley. State Street Global Advisors and AMP Capital Investors are among its other local users. Over two-thirds of those clients are funds managers, and the rest investment banks. Simpson said Factset was winning business from chief operating officers’ wish to reduce their number of external service providers, and to switch to “off the shelf” solutions for all but special internal projects. Factset recently added news and stock quotes feeds to its core portfolio analysis tools and benchmark data feeds. Simpson said the new roles would be in client support for new accounts.
Since taking over the top job at the $44 billion Funds SA more than a year ago, chief executive John Piteo has ushered in an investment function overhaul and wrapped up an important stage of the fund’s five-year data transformation program. It pledges to recentre around investment performance and more efficient processes, as the “missing piece” has been found in incoming CIO Con Michalakis.
Darcy SongJanuary 10, 2025
