Financial services group Perpetual’s decision to close the in-house manufacturing of its International Share funds has resulted in 17 roles being made redundant.
It is understood eight of those roles belong to the investment team and Perpetual would look at opportunities for some staff members in Dublin and London.
“In line with its stated intention to redefine its approach to the international equity asset class, Perpetual has reviewed its Dublin-based international investment capabilities, taking into account market demand, profitability and alignment to strategy,” Perpetual chief executive Chris Ryan said yesterday.
“Perpetual remains strongly committed to the asset class and to delivering international investment management capabilities to the Australian market.
“However, it determined that its current manufacturing capability for this asset class would not meet its business expectations.”
All money in the Perpetual International Share funds including a sole external mandate in total amounts to around $900 million and is in the process of being transitioned to Wellington Management.
Ryan said he was confident in selecting Wellington Management.
“Their value-based approach to international equities is very similar to our own approach to managing Australian equities which has been successful for a very long time,” he said.
“Our asset managers have been involved in the selection process so they are comfortable le with the standards, with the quality of research, decision making and oversight of portfolios.
“So there has been a tremendous amount of work done in getting to where we are and we are confident that we have made a very good choice in a manager whose values and approach is similar to ours and whose track record is very, very strong.”
