The deal will substantially expand Pengana’s range of investment solutions, with the potential to broaden the group’s existing range of fundamental equity strategies with a suite of quantitative offerings.

Pengana CEO Russel Pillemer said the move reinforced the manager’s commitment to offering investment solutions that generated absolute returns for investors – not returns relative to an index.

“We are very pleased to be partnering with PanAgora to bring a range of world class quantitative solutions to Australian advisers and investors,” Mr Pillemer said.

He said Australia’s investor demographics – an ageing population, combined with a growing number of engaged, high net worth investors and SMSF trustees – was driving greater demand for funds focused on delivering absolute returns and capital preservation during prolonged periods of market volatility.

“We are seeing a strong uptake in interest from both advisers and individual investors who are seeking ways to maintain capital and produce reasonable, risk adjusted returns in the face of a highly uncertain investment environment, increasing volatility and stretched equity market valuations,” he said.

PanAgora Chief Investment Officer and Head of Research, Equity, George Mussalli, is visiting Australia this week to meet with the investor, research and investment consulting community.

“We are excited to have the opportunity to bring our unique strategies to the Australian retail market,” Mr Mussalli said.

PanAgora Asset Management is a well-known leader in quantitative investment strategies and manages approximately A$53 billion across a range of strategies for over 125 institutional investors worldwide including large sovereign wealth funds as well as government and corporate pension funds. Closer to home it manages around A$2 billion for Australian institutional investors.

Under the new arrangement, the first strategy to be offered before year end will be the Pengana PanAgora Absolute Return Global Equities Fund – a global long/short strategy with daily liquidity, designed to generate attractive returns regardless of the direction of the underlying market.

Pengana currently manages around A$1.5 billion in assets across five established equity strategies spanning Australian shares, Australian small caps, global resources, global small caps, and Asian event driven.

The deal with PanAgora follows a similar arrangement made with Lizard Investors last year. Lizard is a well-renowned global small and mid cap manager out of Chicago and the appointed managers of the Pengana Global Small Companies Fund.

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