Colonial First State is about to appoint another alliance partner and has engaged a search firm to recruit a marketer to be in charge of the new manager’s distribution.

It is understood the new partner will be related to Research Affiliates, the US-based pioneer of fundamental indexing, and may be called Real Index.

Colonial has appointed Profusion executive search firm to fill the new role. Simone Meers at Profusion is handling the account.

Colonial hopes to mirror the success it has had with Acadian Asset Management, which has had its own local chief executive, Chris Clayton, working with Colonial infrastructure since 2005.

Acadian, a Boston-based value manager, has exclusive retail distribution in Australia through the Colonial platform and network.