Investment Metrics Acquires InterSec Research

Investment Metrics LLC, a provider of performance analytics, manager search and reporting solutions, has acquired InterSec Research, a Stamford-Conn.-based firm known for data and analysis on institutional asset flows moving through global and emerging markets.

The acquisition, which was announced on Oct. 10, brings together two independent firms with synergies in meeting the needs of investment managers, pension sponsors and consultants. InterSec is a provider of business intelligence services to institutional asset management firms and previously was a wholly owned subsidiary of Commerce Holdings, LLC.

With the acquisition, the newly combined firm will expand Investment Metrics’ proprietary technology solutions with the insights of InterSec Research to further enhance the investment research and reporting solutions provided to asset managers, asset owners, investment consultants and advisors.

“We cut across multiple asset classes in trying to do reporting for investment managers and consultants. That’s what we’ve built and extended,” said Sanjoy Chatterjee, CEO of Investment Metrics based in Darien, Connecticut.

Investment Metrics offers an enterprise solution for pension sponsors and consultants that gives them all the facts for hiring a manager, doing an asset allocation and selecting mangers with feedback for the whole process, said Chatterjee. It also provides Web-based management research solutions to collect asset manager data that is fundamental to peer metrics, said Chatterjee.

Chatterjee emphasized the importance of the combined firm’s independence. Chatterjee noted that Investment Metrics was once part of a consulting firm Rogers Casey, (now known as Segal Rogerscasey) and was selling into other consultants. “We understand the importance clients put into independence," said Chatterjee.

Founded in 1975, InterSec Research, based in Stamford, Conn., has been providing data and analytics that are sold to institutional asset managers picking managers for international equity, global equity and emerging markets. This is helping asset managers chart their course, said Chatterjee.

“InterSec Research has built its reputation around the ability to offer clients a deep understanding of global and emerging markets to provide clarity into where institutional assets are moving and why. Joining the Investment Metrics team is a natural fit for us, because of our shared focus on providing our customers with high quality investment research solutions,” commented Sean McCoy of InterSec Research in the release.

The acquisition materialized as InterSec was looking for a customized reporting solution for their asset managers. “We found there was a lot of ways we had synergies. Our market segments are pretty complementary – they service investment managers, while we service consultants and plan sponsors,” explained Chatterjee.

“They’re focusing on investment manager insights on how they’re particular portfolio is doing and why by using similar set of performance metrics and data,” added Chatterjee.

The synergies of the acquisition are data, technology and mining information for investment managers, he said. “We have a lot of data from managers that [InterSec] can utilize. We have technology to offer a much richer platform to their investment advisors,” says Chatterjee. As part of the acquisition, all staff from InterSec Research has joined the combined firm and are going to be moved into Investment Metric’s Darien, Connecticut headquarters. All the operational integration is already complete, according to Chatterjee.

As for competitors, Chatterjee said there are many silos to the combined firm’s business, so it would compete with many products, including asset allocation and customer supporting research. “There is not a direct competitor we compete with other than Excel-based homegrown solutions,” he said. For example, in investment performance reporting, it competes with all the major custodians. Also, InterSec provides strategic consulting to asset managers and a lot of investment consultants provide that to asset managers based on their research. But unlike consultants, Investment Metrics doesn’t get involved in the manager searches, he noted.

“We provide a solution that helps the client to make the decision and go through a search process to meet the client’s mandate,” said Chatterjee. Chatterjee said it’s a little premature to mention new products. “Realizing some of our synergies to make our operations streamlined is our first goal. There are plans to enhance products with richer data, richer analytics and a new user interface for reporting, which are things that we would like to do in six to nine months,” said the firm’s president. “The most important thing is to deal with the segment of market in terms of plan sponsors, consultants and asset managers. We are a solution provider, we are independent and we are not linked with t the benchmark platform,” he emphasized.

Ivy is Editor-at-Large for Advanced Trading and Wall Street & Technology. Ivy is responsible for writing in-depth feature articles, daily blogs and news articles with a focus on automated trading in the capital markets. As an industry expert, Ivy has reported on a myriad ... View Full Bio