About Us
Case Studies - AXA Framlington
Background
AXA Framlington is a leading and progressive specialist investment management company within the AXA Investment Managers Group. Its investment style is primarily bottom up active management and its skill is in identifying and investing in companies with growth prospects at a reasonable price.
The company was established over 34 years ago and is situated in the City of London. Today it manages investments valued at over £9.0 billion (as at 31 October 2007) for investment trusts, pension funds, charities, institutions, unit trusts and PEP and ISA investors.
AXA Investment Managers Group offers fixed income, equity, alternatives (including funds of hedge funds) and solutions.
How it all began
In November 2005, AXA Investment Managers announced that it had successfully completed the acquisition of Framlington Group Limited. AXA Framlington had 12 months (under GIPS) to achieve compliance before being verified.
AXA Framlington and Performa’s relationship started in June 2006. AXA had a clear goal of getting GIPS compliant and verified by October 2006.
Previously, AXA Framlington had all its fund data on spreadsheets, therefore the need for a smooth transition into a managed system was paramount.
The Solution
PerformaGlobal (with the Performance Calculator) was selected as the tool to meet AXA Framlington’s need, because of its perfect fit with the project scope: the competitive cost and the ease of installation and implementation, not to mention Performa’s reputation for outstanding customer service. AXA Framlington was also interested in Performa’s Excel reporting solution (PerformaXRM), once the initial data-loads had taken place.
Results & Reaction
Since implementing PerformaGlobal, AXA Framlington has found that the efficiency of the Performance team has increased significantly due to the accessibility of the data stored within the system. They have found the PerformaXRM tool invaluable for creating a series of branded report templates, and also an efficient tool to deal with the ad-hoc queries of a dynamic organization.
The possibility exists to extend one global reporting solution across the entire AXA Group, including its hedge fund business.
Justine Shadrake (Head of Performance) commented: “When Framlington was purchased, AXA already had GIPS compliance but Framlington didn’t. The goal was global compliance so we needed a system in place within 12 months.”
“We wanted a reliable, structured warehouse that would help us to create and calculate our composites. The Performa system was perfect for this. It is also very flexible and intuitive, enabling very fast implementation. Within two hours of the technicians’ arrival, we had some funds up and running. The five-year fund history was loaded and all the composites were created. We were ready for verification within just six months.”
“The feedback we have had within and beyond the Performance team has been very positive. PerformaGlobal makes it so easy to set up, utilise and amend data. One particular strength is the audit trail, which is unusually straightforward!”
"We are realising that PerformaGlobal has far more potential than just as a warehouse. We are now using the PerformaXRM function to build customised reporting structures for our clients.".
“If you are looking to introduce a GIPS platform for the first time, PerformaGlobal is the solution. Even our non-Performance staff find it very easy to use!”