Symon Parish, chief investment officer of Russell – one of MIR’s largest clients –  said he was sticking by MIR despite its recent performance challenges, which see its ‘Value’ Australian equities fund placed in the third quartile of the Mercer performance survey for the five years to May 31. 

“MIR utilises a quant model slanted towards value and momentum factors, and of course the return of momentum has been at about its all-time worst in recent times. So the return is perfectly understandable given MIR’s style, and it is flagged in its own backtesting… MIR would have been at the top of the surveys a couple of years ago,” Parish said. 

In a tragic development for MIR, analyst for the Australian resources, transport and health care sectors, Mark Buizen, died suddenly earlier this month.