RPMI has boosted its internal research capacity, hiring a former Unigestion portfolio analyst as part of its alternative risk premia team.
Tony Guida joined RPMI Railpen, manager for the UK’s £21bn (€28.9bn) Railways Pension Scheme, this month after spending nearly a year at ERI Scientific Beta, the Nice-based smart beta platform launched by the EDHEC-Risk Institute in 2013.
Prior to joining the EDHEC venture, where he was senior consultant, Guida spent nearly eight years at Unigestion in Geneva, initially as senior vice-president and portfolio analyst.
He later also took on responsibility for research projects.
Commenting on the hire, a spokesman for RPMI said: “We are delighted Tony Guida has joined RPMI to boost the internal research capacity within our alternative risk premia (ARP) team.”
The hire comes after RPMI overhauled its investment strategy and established a dedicated ARP team in the wake of its investment transformation programme, launched in 2013.
The spokesman noted that ARPs would be a “core element” of its new approach to investment.
The shift to ARPs came after the manager examined the cost associated with active management.
Steve Artingstall, investment manager at RPMI, told IPE in March RPMI would consider it a “good outcome” if it achieved 80% of the benefit at 20% of the cost.
He added: “Active managers would need to persuade us that more than 80% of the excess return they generate is not replicable systematically and cheaply.”
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