Bravura’s strategy and development chief, Enda Mahoney, has left and started yesterday at an investment analytics software provider run by a group of ex-BT funds managers.
Mahoney, who was formerly the head of strategic development with wealth management and insurance software provider Bravura, has joined Impact Investing, a supplier of investment analysis and portfolio construction software to funds managers, as chief information officer and managing director of the Australian extension of the business. He began this new tenure yesterday. Nigel Allfrey, Impact director, said Mahoney would work between clients and key software developers – systems architect Ted Harper and lead product developer Paul Roberts – to convey client feedback and improve development processes driving the product, which could be described as a “Google home page” for funds managers. “Impact is about asking the question,” Allfrey said. The system helps manage daily cash and news flow, and provides pre-trade information to portfolio managers regarding investment exposures, valuations, performance attributions, research and risk modeling. It also aims to help portfolio construction and scenario analysis, and is built for fundamental, bottom-up stock-pickers, rather than quantitative managers. “Our niche is investment analytics,”; a stand-alone component preceding trade-order management, custodial functions and performance attribution analysis, Allfrey said. “There are internal systems to do what Impact does. But Impact sits on top of it all.” Before launching Impact in 2003, Allfrey and other company executives were formerly funds managers with BT, an experience that has helped them decide on the types of information would be appropriate for their clients. “We thought about this concept at BT, and saw a commercial opportunity.” One-third of the company’s business is run from its Sydney office, with the remainder conducted from its Boston, London and Tokyo offices. It has 24 clients, including Schroders, Queensland Investment Corporation and Prudential.
There is one investment area where Insignia’s $180 billion super arm has not lost money for the past 17 years, which is what it calls the insurance-related investments. The alternatives strategy is gaining popularity among asset owners due to its diversification benefit, but Insignia’s super and asset management investment chief Dan Farmer warns it is a space where investors can suffer if they “stumble in without doing the homework”.
Darcy SongJanuary 23, 2025
