Major super fund seeds emerging markets strategy

RQI Investors has launched the RQI Emerging Markets Diversified Alpha Fund (the Fund) backed by seed investment from a major Australian super fund, reflecting increasing demand for the firm’s quantitative investment capabilities.

Leveraging the team’s 15-year track record in emerging markets equities, the strategy draws on a wide range of data sources to identify alpha opportunities while maintaining a strong focus on risk management. It aims to deliver long-term capital growth and income whilst aiming to outperform the MSCI Emerging Markets Index by 2% p.a. with similar risk levels over the long term.

The strategy expands RQI Investors’ existing Diversified Alpha suite of funds, including the recently launched Global Diversified Alpha Fund which received a Lonsec ‘Highly Recommended’ rating, and are available to investors in Australia and globally.

The launch follows the award of several new mandates globally in 2026, further demonstrating confidence in RQI Investors’ systematic investment approach and creating further growth opportunities for the business.

Andrew Francis, Chief Executive of RQI Investors said: “The decision by a major client to seed our Emerging Markets Diversified Alpha strategy, together with the award of new mandates, are strong endorsements of our investment capabilities and reflect growing recognition of the value that quantitative investing can bring to client portfolios.

“We are seeing strong interest across client segments and markets off the back of our strong long-term track records across our strategies, creating opportunities for us to work with clients on capabilities that match their needs, expand our product offering, and position our business for long-term growth, whilst remaining laser focused on delivering our performance objectives.”

Strengthening capabilities with four key hires

RQI Investors has also appointed four investment and research professionals, bringing its team to 25 professionals, as it continues to invest in its capabilities to continue to deliver long-term outperformance for clients and support future growth. These include:

• John Conomos joins as Investment Director, supporting client engagement, consultant relationships, product development and thought leadership. He previously served as Head of Global Quantitative Research at Macquarie Group. 
• Dr Chang Hwan Sung joins as Senior Quantitative Portfolio Manager with responsibilities across RQI Investors’ Global Value and Diversified Alpha strategies. He previously held several senior portfolio management and quantitative investment roles at Invesco, BlackRock and Samsung Asset Management.
• Sam Machen joins as Quantitative Research Developer. Mr Machen previously held a number of quantitative modelling and software engineering roles at Jacobi.
• James Sutherland joins as Quantitative Researcher. Previously, Mr Sutherland was a Quant Trader Developer at Tibra Capital specialising in global futures and equities.

Commenting on the appointments, Mr Francis said: “I’m pleased to welcome John, Chang Hwan, Sam and James to RQI Investors. These appointments deepen our investment and research capabilities, and reflect our continued commitment to innovation, strategy development and strong client outcomes. As we continue to grow, having exceptional talent across the business is critical to supporting our clients and focussing on delivering our performance objectives.”

The post RQI Investors launches new client-backed emerging markets strategy and expands team with four key hires appeared first on AdviserVoice.