Goldman Sachs JBWere Asset Management (GSJBW AM) has enough confidence it will begin receiving external mandates for its quant Australian equities process that it is seeking an additional quant analyst, while also seeking to replace just-departed senior analyst Anthony Swan.

Run by Greg Hall and another analyst, the quant equities fund has invested seed capital for a couple of years, and built up a track record which CIO Andrew Cooke said was impressive enough for “;us to be talking to a number of potential investors”;. The quant fund was ninth place in Mercer’s Australian shares survey for the year to June 30, with a return of 35.3 per cent against the ASX 300’s 29.2 per cent, while GSJBW AM’s flagship Australian equities fund languished in seventy-fifth place with a 24.5 per cent return for the year. That fund is understood to be on the verge of a downgrading from at least one research house, following the recent installation of Dion Hershan as the third head of equities in 12 months, after tenures from Cooke and Tim Hannon (now head of property). Cooke himself has just taken additional responsibility for GSJBW AM’s multi-asset class portfolios, following the departure of the executive in charge of those funds two weeks ago. In addition for a replacement for senior analyst Swan, whose expertise was in consumer stocks, GSJBW AM is also looking for an additional analyst-dealer for Hannon’s LPT team.