Ten years after its founding, all the funds of Perpetual’s Quantitative Investments business will be wound down by December.
The unit, which for the last 12 months has been run by Ganesh Suntharam, a long-time offsider of founder Vasant Khilnani, was no longer considered a fit with Pereptual Investments’ strategy, according to a spokesperson.
Like many quantitative strategies, the Perpetual business was hit by the market downturn of 2008 and its funds under management never recovered, dwindling from $1.1 billion in 2008-09 to just $600 million for 2009-10. The spokesperson said Perpetual had been reviewing the unit prior to KKR launching its private equity takeover bid for the company last month.
The spokesperson said efforts would be made to accomodate the six employees of the unit elsewhere in the business.
