van Eyk Research has made three redundancies, with another analyst departing voluntarily as the company announces a new strategy.
The three analysts leaving the company were mostly focusing on the administrative, data collection and compilation side of research, which will now be outsourced to offshore firms, according to chief executive officer Mark Thomas.
van Eyk will replace the voluntary departure and is advertising for a senior analyst specialising in the alternatives space to reflect the new direction, Thomas added.
The new strategy will see van Eyk boost its research in asset classes the company believes "will add most value to investor portfolios over the coming years", such as the alternatives sector.
Developed market equities now make up a quarter of its strategic asset allocation (down from 60 per cent in 2007), which Thomas said required a realignment of van Eyk's resources.
"We were spending seven to eight months a year on two big reviews where we only needed 25 per cent allocation," he said. "My team was equipped to focus on the workload in equities, so when we made changes [to the strategic asset allocation], we also made some changes to the team."
Thomas added the new strategy would focus less on fund managers that are taking small amounts of risk, allowing for a bigger focus on those "willing to give us active risk where we want it".
"That's where the clients are going, too – absolute and benchmark-unaware managers," Thomas added.
van Eyk Research will be reviewing fewer managers who "hug the market index", with Thomas confirming up to 60 funds to be crossed off the list.
