Linedata Services, announces that Sectoral Asset Management, the Montreal, Canada-based investment advisory firm, has adopted the award-winning LongView Trading order management system (“OMS”). Sectoral, a healthcare-focused investment advisory firm, is a partner of State Street Global Advisors (“SSgA”), the investment management arm of State Street Corporation.
Sectoral will be using Linedata’s LongView Trading on an application service provider model (“ASP”), using the system for everything from portfolio management through trading. With ASP deployment, Linedata manages and hosts LongView Trading at secure, specialized data centers, which means Sectoral does not have to worry about managing the information technology infrastructure, giving it a single point of contact for controlling the OMS.
“Linedata provides a cost-effective, streamlined solution that works well for us,” says Jerome Pfund, CFA, chief executive officer of Sectoral. “Our focus is on finding investment opportunities in healthcare and biotechnology. We want to focus on making profitable investments for our clients, rather than managing hardware and software.”
State Street Global Alliance acquired its minority interest in Sectoral in 2007. With $3.6 billion under management (as of 31 May 2008), Sectoral manages healthcare and biotech equity portfolios for institutions as well as mutual funds.
LongView Trading provides a real-time trading platform to Sectoral’s Portfolio Managers and Trading Desk. Linedata’s LongView Trading was recently awarded Best Buy-Side OMS in a survey of alternative and traditional asset managers.
“We are proud to be working with one of the top asset management firms in North America for healthcare and biotechnology,” says Annie Morris, North America managing director for Linedata Services. “LongView Trading ASP provides a real advantage relative to other offerings in this space. For buy-side firms like Sectoral that are looking to access a top trading system without having to focus on managing the IT, Linedata provides the best solution.”