UK – Investment manager research and consultancy company, Forsyth Partners (FP), and Old Broad Street Research (OBSR) are launching a new qualitative fund analysis and ratings service, Forsyth-OBSR Fund Ratings.

www.forsyth-obsr.com is based on FR’s existing offshore funds rating service and is targeted for sale to private banks, asset managers and brokers. The service is free to intermediaries.

It will initially offer A, AA and AAA ratings on a quarterly basis on at least 200 UK authorised unit trusts and UK-friendly offshore funds. It expects to expand its coverage by another 50 in the first few months after launch.

The research is based on the philosophy that qualitative analysis is of greater importance than quantitative analysis. It also seeks to understand a fund’s investment disciplines, in-house research capabilities and how fund mangers react to different market conditions.

A one-page fund report is produced for each rated fund, detailing its rating, classification, investment objective and methodology.

Says Peter Toogood, managing director of investments and research at FR: “The focus of our research is to gain a thorough understating of the investment process applied in the management of a fund.”