Acadian Asset Management lays off 8% of staff
Acadian Asset Management has cut 8% of its workforce or 16 people in a nod to volatile market conditions and in an effort to help the quantitative equities manager make more senior opportunistic hires in the future.
Churchill Franklin, the chief operating officer with the asset manager, said the cuts would come from back office and support staff in its Boston headquarters. The layoffs were facilitated by new efficiencies in its operations.
The firm's wholly owned affiliates in London, Singapore and Sydney were not affected by the layoffs.
Franklin said that the cuts were made because the firm is "very cautious about the overall level of the markets,” and to ensure it is well positioned to ride out the volatility.
Among the areas where the asset manager would make opportunistic hires would be in client services, portfolio management and research, which accounts for one-third of its workforce.
He said: "There are some very talented people in the market at the moment and you can get them for cheaper than you could before."
Acadian Asset Management is owned by Old Mutual, the London-listed insurance and fund management group. Its clients include large institutional investors and among them 12 sovereign wealth funds. Its target areas include behavioural finance, managed volatility, emerging markets and frontier markets. It has $40bn (€29.7bn) in assets under management.
Franklin added: "We're seeing significant inflows in emerging markets. Our managed volatility strategy is doing very well right now."
Acadian joins a long list of asset managers forced to make cutbacks in recent months, including AllianceBernstein, Legg Mason, Putnam Investments, and Fidelity Investments.
—Write to Stephanie Baum at sbaum@efinancialnews.com
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