Goldman Sachs' Hudson Street Services announced a minority investment in TrimTabs Investment Research, an alternative research firm specializing in collecting and analyzing flow of funds data. The terms of the investment were not disclosed. Hudson Street will also introduce TrimTabs' services to its institutional client base.
TrimTabs tracks data relating to the purchase and sale of equities and cash balances for approximately 800 U.S. mutual funds and ETFs, which is used by investors and investment banks to gauge investor sentiment. The firm offers a variety of services ranging from daily and weekly reports on funds flow to data feeds of fund flow information. In a partnership with Barclay's Global Investors, TrimTabs also follows inflows and outflows to approximately 5,500 hedge funds. Founded in 1990, the firm has developed a database of daily flow information going back to 1998. Unlike some of its competitors, TrimTabs relies on sampling to estimate fund flow trends with US mutual funds.
Up until now, TrimTabs has not offered fund flow information outside the U.S. The company indicated that it would use a portion of Goldman's investment to develop a non-US offering.
For Hudson Street Services, TrimTabs is the eighth investment to be publicly announced. TrimTabs fits the profile in that it is non-traditional (that is, not fundamental research), under-marketed, and a relatively high priced service. The previous Hudson Street investments include Lusight Research, an emerging markets specialist; Medley Global Advisors, a policy research firm; iSuppli, a technology industry consulting firm; Connotate Technology, a search-based research firm; Asset4, an ESG research firm; The Quantitative Services Group, a quantitative research provider, and Investars, a firm which tracks research performance. Goldman's private equity group also invested in Wall Street on Demand, a custom developer of financial web sites.
Goldman has signaled its intention to make investments in ten to twelve alternative research firms. Through the Hudson Street investments and distribution agreements, its 3RB platform (including Research XPRESS) and through activities such as sponsorship of Investorside's Independent's Day Conference, Goldman seeks to be strongly associated with alternative research, particularly among its institutional investor clients. The strategy is to complement its own proprietary research offering, support its role as a CCA/CSA broker, and increase commission flow.
The full text of TrimTab's press release is below.
TrimTabs Reports Investment by Goldman Sachs' Hudson Street Services
Monday February 11, 7:50 am ET
SANTA ROSA, Calif., Feb. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- TrimTabs Investment Research, a leading source of data on supply and demand of equities and cash available for investment, announced today that Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS - News), through its Hudson Street Services business, has made a minority investment in the firm.
TrimTabs said it plans to use a portion of the investment to expand its current offering of global liquidity analysis.
Under the terms of the transaction, Hudson Street Services has agreed to introduce TrimTabs' products and services to institutional buy-side investors.
Hudson Street Services, a Goldman Sachs business, offers investment professionals access to a select platform of unique content and tools. Collectively, Hudson Street Services offers a flexible and efficient way for investors to access critical information designed to assist investors in making better investment decisions.
TrimTabs' Chairman Charles Biderman said, "For a long time, we have wanted to enrich our offerings with global data on supply and demand of equities and cash available for investment; as well as expand our marketing capabilities. The Hudson Street investment will make this possible."
Hudson Street Services CEO Michael Sanders said, "Goldman Sachs has found TrimTabs' analysis very useful. We hope our new collaboration will help grow TrimTabs Investment Research activities."
This release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to sell any securities of TrimTabs.
TrimTabs Investment Research is a leading independent research service that publishes detailed daily coverage of U.S. stock market liquidity, including mutual funds and exchange-traded funds, as well as weekly withheld income and employment tax collections. Founded by Charles Biderman, TrimTabs has provided institutional investors with trading strategies since 1990. For more information, please visit www.TrimTabs.com.
Posted at 06:39 am by Sanford (Sandy) Bragg
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