Market report. Investment Management and Project Delivery. October 24

This report is aimed at providing a high-level snapshot of the recent market activity across project delivery in the Investment Management space across Australia.   

Current Project Trends

• State Street Alpha continues its rapid growth, signing up several new Investment Managers (combination of lobal and global managers) onto its end-end solution which integrates Charles River into its State Street’s broader investments data, middle and back-office solutions.

• There are several front office OMS/PMS implementations in train, some at early stages and other in final stages, spanning both the listed and private markets/unlisted side.  

• We have seen some acquisitions across some of the smaller-midsized Investment Managers over the last 3-6 months which is leading to some integration project activities.

• The push to shift services from on-premises to the cloud is ongoing, with a particular emphasis on investment data platforms.

Employment Market Trends

• As we the near the end of the year, we are seeing some subtle green shoots in the employment market, whilst it’s not a drastic change in the market, it is encouraging. However we need to temper the expectations here given that there have been some false starts this year.

• Despite these green shoots, the market remains challenging, particularly for senior candidates. It has been a particularly frustrating period for many people, some fantastic people are in unchartered waters, having been unemployed for a long time. When they do reach the interview stage, they are quite often competing against several high-quality candidates, making it a bit of a dream scenario for clients but equally a very difficult process for a candidate to come out on top.

M&A Activity (Recent Announcements or Discussions)

• ART to merge with Qantas Super

• Telstra Super to merge with Equip Super.

Watch This Space and Questions Moving Forward

• We’re hearing about various merger and acquisition deals in the pipeline and we wouldn’t be surprised to see more come to fruition over the next 3-6 months.

• As discussed we are seeing some very early signs of a recovery. With some large transformation programs being kicked off we may some seem heightened activity occur throughout 2025. While this is promising, it’s essential to temper expectations given recent macroeconomic conditions.

• Although we’ve yet to see any large-scale AI programs in the investments space, aside from investment data automation, we wouldn’t be surprised if more initiatives start to emerge.

If you'd like to discuss any of the above or have a general discussion about the market, please call Steve Ash on 0439 441 758.