AFTAs 2019: Best Partnership or Alliance—Qontigo and Charles River Development

Change often yields new opportunities, or so it is said. For the winners of this year’s best partnership or alliance award, that saying certainly rings true.

In April 2019, Deutsche Börse acquired Axioma for $850 million and combined the trading tools provider with its index businesses (Stoxx and DAX), thus giving birth to a new company, Qontigo. In July 2018, State Street bought Charles River Development for $2.6 billion. As margins are tightening, costs are increasing, and investors are moving to passive investments, firms are increasingly looking for end-to-end solutions, and Qontigo and Charles River saw an opportunity to join forces.

The collaboration will integrate Axioma’s risk and portfolio analytics into the Charles River Investment Management Solution (IMS), a front- and middle-office platform used by more than 300 investment managers, asset owners, and hedge funds globally. As a result, Charles River clients can now access Axioma’s portfolio and risk analytics from IMS.

In combination with Charles River’s portfolio management, risk and attribution capabilities, Axioma’s equity, fixed income and multi-asset risk models enable firms to identify, measure and model risk across the front and middle office on one platform. The Axioma Portfolio Optimizer incorporates several patented innovations that enable clients to build more robust portfolios across a broad range of strategies and timeframes.

Leveraging Charles River’s single data model and portfolio manager workbench, Axioma’s portfolio and risk analytics provide global investment managers, asset owners, insurers and wealth managers with fit-for-purpose analytics across assets, markets and geographies.

Qontigo’s tools for risk management, portfolio construction and optimization, combined with the capabilities of Charles River IMS, provide the front and middle offices with a powerful and unified solution that enhances their pursuit of alpha.

IPC Systems and GreenKey Technologies won this award in 2018, and Thomson Reuters and Symphony won in 2017.