Operations Market Update
Black Swan Operations Market update 2012
Sector: Buy Side: Hedge Fund, Boutique and Institutional Investment Fund Area: Distribution: Sales Marketing and Client Management
The significant movement during the first half of the year was determined heavily by market conditions, with a smaller number of candidates looking for moves compared with 2010.
Within the larger Institutional houses, the notable movement was towards an increase in junior to mid level sales and marketing support specialists (Investment writers, Marketing Communications Associates, RFP writers). At the Marketing/Sales Support Manager level there was some movement around bonus time, predominantly driven by replacement hires as opposed to growth hires.
Salaries within this bracket (equivalent to VPàP) saw modest year-on-year increases of 5-10%. The junior – mid level hires saw average salaries maintained from 2010.
Across the Hedge fund / boutique Investment house space, there were some interesting moves, with a number of mid size funds (AUM: circa $150-600M) looking to respond to the unpredictable market conditions offensively, bolstering their Business Development units with Senior hires across Investments / Asset Raising / Distribution Strategy / Marketing. The move to increase assets in this space may be a reaction to a number of significant fund launches (AUM: c. £5-10bn) tabled for Q4 2011/Q1 2012.
To supplement the addition of Senior hires, there have also been a number of mid level hires (4-8 yrs experience). Competition within this space has been fierce as employers have looked to maximise value by broadening the function of the people they bring in at this level. Salaries have increased on average 5% year on year from 2010 in order to secure experienced professionals. One interesting trend to note is that a significant proportion of competitive candidates / hires within this space have been expats moving to the UK, from across Asia, Australia, N. America and Europe.
Client Services / Investor Relations – this function has increasing significance within the current market climate. Levels of training and investment in this area has increased in order to respond to Investor demand, and also to supplement / maximise depleted resources in other areas ie Front Office. CS professionals are now expected to be more sophisticated in their level of understanding ie deal with investment queries, asset allocation / strategy, product queries, pricing issues, fund structuring as well as operational/performance related queries. This shift has seen an increase in candidate interest in this area. 2012 Outlook
Senior Business Development - a continued appetite for Seniority/Track Record. A continued necessity to increase salaries as asset raising conditions remain testing. Early signs in January have indicated that asset raisers are in high demand, with the bulge bracket $500M - $5BN AUM funds looking to consolidate their position in 2012, on the hope market conditions will strengthen over the next 18 months.
Sales Support / RFP/ Investment writers - Institutional Investment houses starting to take on graduates with limited experience in this space, utilising the tough graduate job market to appeal to talented university leavers. Client Services/Investor Relations - a continued appetite for more sophisticated CS professionals. Significant investment in this area by Institutional IMs and strong performing mid-sized fund. 5% (projected average) salary increase for 2012.
