Press Release: Ardea IM and University of Technology Sydney launch research partnership
Sydney, 07 September 2020 – Leading fixed income specialist Ardea Investment Management has launched a new research partnership with the University of Technology Sydney (UTS).
The Ardea IM + UTS Academic Program will foster innovative and impactful academic research to advance knowledge in finance and further strengthen Ardea IM’s research capabilities, which is expected to benefit the large boutique manager’s clients.
Through the partnership, Ardea IM will jointly research projects, and author thought leadership articles with UTS researchers, and will provide industry mentorship to UTS students.
Ardea IM Head of Research and recently appointed UTS Industry Fellow Dr Laura Ryan will lead the participation by Ardea IM, with UTS Finance Discipline Group academics Dr Kylie-Anne Richards and Dr Gerhard Hambusch leading UTS’ involvement in the partnership.
The partnership is already bearing fruit, with Ardea IM and UTS currently investigating machine learning for trade idea identification, climate change and government bond investing, and the LIBOR transition and how it may impact trading opportunities.
Ardea IM CEO and co-founder Stephen Clout said, “Ardea IM is thrilled to have this opportunity to work with an organisation of the calibre of the University of Technology Sydney. We believe this partnership will strengthen our offering to clients and enhance our trade idea generation process. It is a key component of our strategic plan to prepare Ardea IM for a strong pipeline of long-term growth opportunities and ensure we maintain our highest standards of alpha generation,” Mr Clout said.
The partnership follows the appointment of Dr Ryan earlier this year to progressively build a research team to support Ardea IM’s growing investment capabilities by researching and developing relative value investment strategies.
Ardea IM’s relative value investment approach targets reliable risk-adjusted alpha that is independent of market direction and exhibits minimal correlation to broader fixed income and equity markets.
Founded in 2008, Ardea IM is one of Australia’s largest fixed income investment managers, entrusted with managing over $15bn on behalf of clients, including Australia’s most sophisticated institutional investors and a growing retail and wholesale investor base.
The firm maintains majority ownership by employees to foster both long-term alignment of interests with clients and stability of the investment team and is partly owned by leading investment manager, Fidante Partners.
Ardea IM’s flagship fund, the Ardea Real Outcome Fund, is the top performing fund in Mercer’s Australian Absolute Return Fund category for one year up to 30/06/2020 in terms of gross returns. It is also the top performing fund over three and five years[1]^.
The UTS Finance Discipline was one of only four finance departments in Australia to have been awarded the highest possible ranking for research by the national research evaluation framework, Excellence in Research, for Australia in the State of Australian National University Research 2018-19: ERA National Report.
About Ardea Investment Management
Founded in 2008, Ardea IM is a specialist fixed income investment manager, with a global client base ranging from pension funds, insurance companies and government entities, to wholesale and retail investors.
Our distinctive ‘relative value’ investment approach accesses return sources beyond the conventional to deliver consistent volatility controlled returns that are independent of the level of bond yields, the direction of interest rates and broader market fluctuations.
We generate returns by exploiting specific types of pricing anomalies, called ‘relative value’ mispricing, which stem from structural market inefficiencies that have proven persistent throughout decades of varying market cycles and economic environments. This is what makes ‘relative value’ mispricing a reliable source of returns, based on which we have built a repeatable investment process.
While chasing returns is common, what differentiates Ardea IM is our focus on delivering consistent volatility controlled returns. We manage our portfolios with tight risk control, risk diversification and tail risk mitigating strategies to prioritise capital preservation and control performance volatility, irrespective of the market environment.
The firm maintains majority ownership by employees to foster both long term alignment of interests with clients and stability of the investment team. Our portfolio managers have diversity and depth of experience in global relative value investing spanning 20+ years.
Since inception, Fidante Partners (a division of the Challenger Limited group), have held a strategic minority shareholding in Ardea IM. Through this partnership Ardea IM outsources all non-investment functions to Fidante, who provide institutional grade operations, compliance, technology and client support, allowing Ardea IM’s team to focus on investing.
[1] Source: MercerInsight ®, Mercer Investment Performance Survey of Australian Absolute Return universe.
^ Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance. You should not rely on past performance to make investment decisions. Information contained with the Mercer Investment Surveys has been obtained from a range of third party sources. While the information is believed to be reliable, Mercer has not sought to verify it independently. As such, Mercer makes no representations or warranties as to the accuracy of the information presented and takes no responsibility or liability (including for indirect, consequential or incidental damages), for any error, omission or inaccuracy in the data supplied by any third party.