Hedge Fund Services
We provide cost-competitive hedge fund services to some of the most sophisticated funds globally, including 6 of the top 10 global hedge funds looking to scale efficiently. Acuity Knowledge Partners sets up dedicated teams of analysts across equities, fixed income, private equity, data science and quantitative services to support these hedge fund clients. These teams work as an extension of the hedge fund advisory firms’ internal teams to support them across the investment research lifecycle – from idea generation to portfolio monitoring to exit. The output produced by our analysts is customised for a particular client and is for their exclusive use. By leveraging our hedge fund solutions, our clients have been able to drive proprietary investment research process at scale, providing them with a unique edge that is also sustainable.
Hedge Fund Services - Support We offer
- Equity Research
Our highly qualified and experienced equity research analysts work as an extension of the teams of global investment managers and research analysts. We support equity research firms in finding new investment opportunities, expanding coverage, and staying abreast of industry, regulatory and technology trends, and evolving company performance. Our equity research teams of fundamental research and data experts provide customised equity research services by combining alternative data, ESG and technology expertise (e.g., our BEAT suite of tools) to provide differentiated research insights across sectors. We employ one of the largest pools of research analysts with higher professional degrees in finance (such as CFA and CPA), well supported by our Training and Knowledge Management team through a CFA Institute-accredited equity research training programme.
- Fixed Income and Credit Research
We are the largest independent fixed income and credit research service provider that specialises in providing Mutually Exclusive and Collectively Exhaustive set of fixed income and credit research support services to asset managers and investment banks. We have a team of over 200 credit research analysts; they are specialists in Emerging Markets and Developed Markets and, by asset class, in Distressed Debt, Sovereign, Sub-sovereign and Corporate and Financial issuers. The team combines qualitative and quantitative fundamental credit research with technological solutions that not only improve our speed to market but also provide actionable insights.
Our fixed income and credit research team is spread across geographies and credit ratings and even the unrated spectrum, including distressed issuers and workouts. The team is well supported by several best practices documents, Acuity’s proprietary training modules (CFA accredited), and access to long-serving in-house sector and asset class experts. This helps credit analysts to continuously upgrade their subject matter expertise and move up the value chain of fixed income and credit research.
- Data Science
Global technology megatrends, regulatory developments, the competitive landscape and the rise of alternative data have been driving a paradigm shift in the capital markets ecosystem. Demand to find new avenues of alpha creation powered by data science techniques is at unprecedented levels. Acuity has been providing highly bespoke quantitative and technology-powered solutions to our buy-side and sell-side clients since 2005. To address growing demand in recent years, we launched a dedicated data science practice early in 2019 to provide unique and contextual insights based on artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML).
- Private Equity Support
We provide end-to-end support to private equity (PE) firms on the investment side as well as horizontal support across middle-office and back-office functions.
On the front-end investment side, we provide comprehensive service offerings to support our PE clients across their investment lifecycles. We assist them from deal sourcing and target evaluation to portfolio monitoring and advisory.
We also support middle-office and back-office teams of PE firms by providing bespoke fundraising, investor relations and fund operations solutions. We assist clients from level 1 responses to activities such as RFPs/RFIs/DDQs, client presentations, factsheet generation, fund monitoring and fund valuation, and investor reporting. In addition to providing dedicated support on fund valuation, investor reporting and fund administration, we are experienced in integrating data operations into CRM systems, keeping onshore teams informed and flexible to respond to queries faster.
- Portfolio Research and Operations
Our ‘Portfolio Research and Operations practice provides support to a number of asset managers on activities across the portfolio management value chain, including the following:
Performance and risk analytics dashboards
Performance measurement and attribution
Risk metrics and analytics – beta, VaR, tracking error, correlation, risk attribution
Analytics using third-party platforms
Middle Office support
Portfolio Operations
Investment reporting
Portfolio analytics maintenance work on platforms such as FactSet, Barra Aegis, Axioma, Wilshire Axiom, Bloomberg and POINT
Portfolio Analytics and Reporting
We have distinguished ourselves from peers through our innovative products and client-centric and thought leadership approach in portfolio analytics and reporting and management. We enable clients to work on a "lean" model by offshoring analytical and technology requirements, increasing their bandwidth to focus on value-added strategies. We also help clients leverage our industry experience for superior portfolio risk analytics, efficient investment operations, enhanced reporting solutions, robust data integration and management, and bespoke applications, tools and dashboards. Our customers have experienced significant value from our strong capital markets knowledge coupled with data and technology capabilities to build innovative and tailored managed service solutions.
- Index Solutions
As the focus shifts towards more passive strategies and ETFs, cost pressure increases, driving the need for innovative, market-relevant products and building infrastructure to support growth. Acuity Knowledge Partners is one of the leading global third-party vendor of index support, with more than 10 years of experience in supporting four of the world’s topindex providers. We offer end-to-end index support services under one roof – we provide index development and operations across strategy and benchmark indices with multi-asset-class coverage, thematic and strategy research, index marketing and client servicing.
By leveraging our broad suite of Index services and solutions, our clients are able to move up the value chain and overcome budgetary and research bandwidth constraints. We help our clients develop and test new and monetisable research ideas. Furthermore, our research and analytics expertise and ability to take on regular maintenance work free up their time to focus on higher-priority objectives.
- EDGE in Consultant Database (CDB) Uploads
- Navigator
- Automated Financial Model Builder
- Equity and FICC Analytics and Comp Builder
- Interactive Fund Factsheet Builder
- Web Audit and Data Extractor
- Digital Marketeer Interface
- Sales and Client Newsletter Communicator
- Robo Smart Beta Quant ETF
- Portfolio Optimiser
- Fund Simulator
- Data Aggregator and Cleanser
- Research Digitisation and Report Generator
- Interactive Charting and Readership Analytics
- MIFID II Dashboards and Interactive Charting
-
Learn more about BEAT enabled Solutions
Hedge Fund Services - Support We offer
- EDGE in Consultant Database (CDB) Uploads
- Navigator
- Automated Financial Model Builder
- Equity and FICC Analytics and Comp Builder
- Interactive Fund Factsheet Builder
- Web Audit and Data Extractor
- Digital Marketeer Interface
- Sales and Client Newsletter Communicator
- Robo Smart Beta Quant ETF
- Portfolio Optimiser
- Fund Simulator
- Data Aggregator and Cleanser
- Research Digitisation and Report Generator
- Interactive Charting and Readership Analytics
- MIFID II Dashboards and Interactive Charting
-
Learn more about BEAT enabled Solutions
How we are different
Ready access to skilled talent: Pool of educated, well-trained, highly skilled analysts who work as an extension of a hedge fund advisory firms, with the flexibility to ramp up, downsize and/or offer multi-language support and near-shore capabilities, depending on business requirements.
Support bottom-line optimisation: Clients optimise capacity by assigning time-consuming, non-core tasks and enjoy 40-60% cost savings while delivering hedge fund services.
Depth of delivery and industry experience: Ability to transform portfolio coverage into an around-the-clock monitoring system via our strategically located delivery centres.
A range of cross-platform hedge fund solutions under one umbrella: We offer research process automation using our proprietary automation tools (BEAT), ESG coverage and data science and technology services.
Acuity can receive payments via soft dollars: Acuity will facilitate the structure for receiving payments from third party/brokers.
Robust compliance and information security controls: Client confidentiality and information security are an integral part of our value system and, as such, are SOC 2 Type II attested, maintaining client confidentiality at the highest industry standards with robust physical, technological and compliance controls.
What we have done
Support to a global asset manager with USD1tn in AUM across fund strategies
What we are proud of
20%
increased coverage to include a larger universe of funds
1,000+
enhanced participation in multi-fund deals
Strategic data production partner to a top 3 hedge fund
What we are proud of
USD1.1m in annualised cost savings
Capital markets domain + front-office technology DNA helped create a strong validation framework
Credit research support to a discretionary investment manager with USD28bn in AuM
What we are proud of
2.5x
more credit coverage
USD1m in
estimated annualised cost savings
Natural language processing (NLP) support for ESG investing to a global asset manager (with USD700bn+ in AuM)
What we are proud of
Algorithms to power NLP engines with overall accuracy of 85% and full ownership of intellectual property
70%+ operational cost savings
Equity research support to a top 5 global equity hedge fund
What we are proud of
USD1.6m (c. 30%) in estimated annualised cost savings
Providing after-hours support to client analysts based in the US and UK
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Meet our experts
Rathnakala Kumaragurunathan (Rathi)
Director, Investment Research
Rathi has over 13 years of work experience in buy side equity research. She oversees the buy side engagements, Colombo – Sri Lanka. Rathi has extensive experience in setting up, scaling, and managing buy-side client engagements, in particular hedge fund accounts, and working closely with clients to meet their evolving needs and exceed their expectations. She has gained expertise in building and grooming talent and ensuring client requirements are met at the highest standards. Rathi Holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics and Management from the London School of Economics, a member of Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (UK), an associate member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (UK) and a Certified Public Accountant (Australia).
Ramesh Punugu
Director, IR
Ramesh has over 19 years of experience in global capital markets – research and investment banking. Prior to joining Acuity Knowledge Partners, Ramesh worked with the offshore research and analytics units of Crisil and iGate, managing sell-side research and investment banking teams for global clients. He started his career as an investment banker at Ind Global Financial Trust (currently part of Ernst & Young’s corporate finance practice in India), advising companies on M&A and capital raising. He holds an MBA and a bachelor’s degree in Technology.
Pradeepa Kuppusubramanian
Director, Fixed Income and Credit Research
Pradeepa has over 13 years of work experience, including 11 years in fixed income and credit research. She heads the fixed income and credit research teams across our global delivery locations. Pradeepa has extensive experience in setting up, scaling, and managing buy-side and sell-side client engagements, and working closely with clients to meet their evolving needs and exceed their expectations. Her asset class expertise includes focus on complex high-yield, distressed and defunct issuers; and US Municipals. Prior to joining Acuity Knowledge Partners, she was an associate in the audit and business advisory wing of PricewaterhouseCoopers. Pradeepa is a Chartered Accountant and holds a bachelor’s degree in Commerce.
Pedro Armstrong
Co-Head of Business Development in North America
Pedro Armstrong is a Managing Director at Acuity Knowledge Partners and leads business development efforts in the Americas for the Corporate and Commercial Banking, Buy-side, and Sell-side segments. He is responsible for managing key client engagements and works in partnership with capital market firms to provide customized solutions across research and analytics support, origination and lending support, and marketing and compliance support. He has been with the organization for 12 years, serving in various roles across Sri Lanka, Costa Rica, and now the US. Prior to joining Acuity Knowledge Partners, he was a Central Bank Regulator at the Central Bank of Barbados. Pedro, who is a British Chevening Scholar, holds a Master’s degree (honors) in Banking and International Finance from Cass Business School, City University, London.
Chanakya Dissanayake
Managing Director/Country Head, Sri Lanka, Head of Investment Research
Chanakya Dissanayake leads the investment research vertical at Acuity and counts over 16 years with the firm. In addition, Chanakya manages the Colombo delivery center that provides investment research, quant – data science , commercial lending and FMS services. Investment research vertical is responsible for the buy-side, sell-side and private wealth management clientele that obtains equity and fixed income research from Acuity. Chanakya is a CFA charterholder and a fellow member of ACCA (UK) and CIMA (UK).
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