CMA & Derivation Software
Announce Deal with Augustus Asset Management
17 June 2008
CMA, the credit information specialist, today announced that Augustus Asset Management
has selected CMA DataVision and Derivation Software to provide independent CDS price
verification services. Augustus, a London based fund manager with $13.5bn in assets
under management, will receive prices from DataVision's buy-side consortium model
via the Derivation platform.
Michael Allen, Chief Operations Officer at Augustus explained the background to
the deal: "Augustus has been actively trading credit for about 4 years. We wanted
a reliable data set that could be used by both the front and middle offices to price
positions and perform flash P&L for a variety of alternative and mutual fund strategies
and that would help with Augustus's ongoing drive to comply with AIMA / IOSCO valuation
guidelines. We'd been speaking with Derivation as they have the ability to manage
a wide variety of securities and they recommended CMA to us. During the trial we
were impressed by the quality of the data and the levels of support we received
from CMA. Accessing CMA prices via Derivation will benefit our fund managers, product
controllers and client servicing teams and will ultimately enable us to offer added
value to our investors."
Kevin Lenehan, Commercial Director at Derivation said "Technology is no longer optional
for asset managers- there is increasing focus and spending on technology as awareness
of the need for risk management and operational best practise grows. Derivation
is receiving more enquiries now than any time over the last three years. High quality
spread and term data is critical for any credit investor and CMA is widely acknowledged
as the gold standard provider of CDS data- we'll continue to recommend them to our
clients."
"We are pleased to count Augustus among our clients," said Laurent Paulhac, CMA's
Chief Executive, "DataVision is an extremely flexible product that's easy to integrate
with other technologies. Partnerships with firms like Derivation add value for our
clients as they enable us to deliver DataVision to users via their preferred platform."
CMA DataVision is a high quality, same day, consensus based price verification data
service for CDS, Indices and Tranches, used primarily for mark-to-market, flash
P&L, research and analytics. Data is based on observed real-time indicative prices
from a consortium of 30 buy-side firms including Hedge Funds, Asset Managers and
the buy-side desks of leading global Investment Banks. DataVision is used for a
range of functions, including valuations, research, modelling and risk management.