Perignon takes funds management skills to the bank

The Sydney arm of a global investment bank has attracted Matthew Perignon away from Challenger Financial Services, to become a director of its securities division.

Following a trend for investment banks, which are increasingly targeting super funds as clients, Credit Suisse has hired from the funds management ranks with the appointment of Perignon, who last week left Challenger where he headed institutional sales, reporting to boss of funds management Rob Adams. Prior to joining Challenger last year, Perignon was a senior business development manager with Perpetual. At his new position, which he starts later this year, Perignon will be in charge of institutional distribution, reporting to Philip Noble, managing director and head of the fixed income division for Credit Suisse. Challenger’s Matt Gaden said Perignon’s departure was “amicable”, and that he would now resume his role heading distribution across the wholesale and retail worlds. Gaden said the institutional presence would be maintained by the recent arrival of James Bloom in Sydney from the UK. “We met James and hired him last year and he’s spent a few months working from our London office,” Gaden said. “Before that he played a big part in taking Newton Investment Management from 0 to $25 billion across a period of ten years.” Credit Suisse’s Noble said that Perignon’s recruitment was a senior one for the group, as he would be in charge of distributing managed funds, structured products and alternative products. Credit Suisse has a large range of third-party managers and strategies increasingly being made available to the institutional market.