Goldman Adds QSG to Hudson Street Platform
March 31, 2008
Quantitative Services Group (QSG), a provider of consulting services and equity analytics, has entered into a partnership with Goldman Sachs' Hudson Street Services business. Institutional clients of Goldman Sachs will now have access to QSG's products and services via the Hudson Street platform.
As part of the transaction, Goldman Sachs will also make a minority investment of undisclosed size in privately owned QSG, which will continue to operate independently and service clients through its equity research, trading client teams and Web-based research portal, according to the companies.
"Third-party alternative research is increasingly becoming a more important part of the investment process," said Tom Conigliaro, head of distribution for Hudson Street, adding that his firm's mandate is to "provide great access to these alternative resources."
Goldman launched the unit early last year, providing investment professionals with a selection of content and tools supplied by partners. "Our Hudson Street Services business is designed to make minority investments in alternative research firms and proactively market those firms to our clients," said Conigliaro. "The combination of these two businesses creates a synergistic distribution platform that meets the diverse needs of our client base."
Hudson Street currently has distribution agreements with ten companies, including Boulder, Colo.'s Wall Street On Demand, which delivers Internet-based research that is private-labeled for firms' individual investor clientele; Asset4 of Zug, Switzerland, which tracks corporate performance on environmental, social and corporate governance criteria; and New Brunswick, N.J.-based Connotate Technologies, a provider of intelligent agent technology for searching and extracting data from the Web.
Last fall, Goldman introduced Hudson Street to clients in Europe; it plans to expand the platform to Asia and the Middle East this year. According to Conigliaro, Goldman expects to make several more investments for Hudson Street over the course of the next 12 months.
Tim Sargent, president and founder of Naperville, Ill.-based QSG, called the distribution agreement with Hudson Street "a chance for us to address part of our growth designs."
"We haven't had an effective marketing effort outside of the U.S.," explained Sargent. Hudson Street gives QSG "the opportunity to utilize that platform to get our message outside the U.S. [without] spending the money on salespeople and other distribution capabilities." He added, "This allows me the flexibility to spend that money on increasing our personnel and infrastructure to do research, which is what we're in business to do. It was a chance for us to focus on our knitting, which is providing good, independent equity research."
Mike Sanders, managing director of Hudson Street, noted that "QSG's technology platform, modeling techniques and specialty data sets offer our clients access to important tools for their business. The firm's approach to data and investment style ensures the offering remains relevant to the investment decisionmaking process irrespective of market conditions and investment strategies."
QSG announced last week that Dan Bukowski, previously chief investment officer for global equities at Citigroup's asset management arm, has come on as director of research, with responsibility for its equity research, systematic stock-selection models and trading analysis products. Sargent said that Bukowski, a 20-year veteran of the quantitative finance industry who has also been director of quantitative research for Zurich Kemper Investments, "brings a unique mix of experience, expertise and leadership to QSG" and "his global investment perspective and technical understanding will enhance all of our offerings."
