The publisher of IPE has formed a joint venture, Insticube, to take over and further develop the Pension Fund Perception Programme (PFPP) Research Programme.

The programme was founded by IPE in 2012 as a source of information about the overall performance in service by asset managers for institutional clients.

Announcing the joint venture at the IPE annual conference in Berlin today, Tim Brown, director of the PFPP research programme, said the aim was to bring all the largest institutional asset owners in each region into the programme – up to 2,000 asset owners in six regions.

He said Insticube aimed to help asset managers achieve “exceptional client centricity”.

Insticube is a joint venture is with Carsten Eckert, of AssetMetrix, a European provider of high-end analytics and tailored asset servicing for private capital investors.

Eckert has more than 25 years of experience in the institutional markets.

Insticube will be a privately held German company owned by IPE International Publishers, Asset Metrix, Eckert and management, together with a group of individual private investors.

Insticube will acquire the assets of the PFPP Research Programme from IPE International Publishers in a transaction due to complete early next year. 

It will start operations in early 2017.

The joint venture will be based in Munich, Germany, with planned operations in the UK, France, Italy, Sweden, and The Netherlands. The idea of operating from these centres is to work more closely with the asset owners involved in the platform, according to Brown.