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Man Group, the world’s largest list hedge fund manager, has ordered London-based Quantz to be temporarily returned to its office five days a week amidst poor performance.
Man Ahl, the company’s flagship systematic investment arm, told staff he expects daily attendance from the team to the office.
The change applies to around 150 people in London (just under 10% of the 1,700 employees in the group), covering three months from May to the end of July.
“Man Ahl asked London staff to work in the office for three months five days a week to support the research project for the ‘All Hands On Deck’ cross-team,” Man Group said.
“Though these cross-team initiatives are rare, experience has been shown to allow for significant research advancements in relatively short periods of highly focused and face-to-face collaboration,” he added. “The company’s broader, agile working policies remain unchanged.”
The directive is a $172.6 billion change in the asset manager’s stance. Man Group has historically seen a culture of flexible labor agreements, including working from home, as a competitive advantage.
“I can’t imagine how badly this is in Quantz,” said someone familiar with the situation. “I feel bad.”
The situation depends on the role. However, according to a second person who is well-versed in the situation, on average, employees tend to be in the office three days a week.
Man Group’s cross-team efforts are due to computer-driven hedge funds such as the AHL suffered significant losses this year.
Market volatility caused by US President Donald Trump’s on-off trade war made one of the hardest main strategies difficult as the markets are heading in different directions.
Man Group’s AHL is one of the longest-running and systematic hedge fund managers. The AHL Alpha program, a strategy to follow its flagship agency trends, has lost 10% so far this year, up just 3.2% in 2024.
Despite years of efforts to diversify a wide range of businesses beyond AHL, the Man Group stock price is closely linked to Quant Business’s performance due to the high fees it commands. The company’s stock has lost a third of its value in the past 12 months.
MAN Group is the latest financial services group that enhances flexible work policies. Last month, the Financial Times revealed that BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, told staff that around 1,000 managing directors around the world are expected to work from the office full-time.
Other large financial institutions such as JPMorgan have also cut their flexible working policies, with US banks ordering more than 300,000 employees returning to their offices five days a week.
Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan, is one of the most vocal opponents in the working-from-home culture, saying, “It’s useless to young people… I’m not working for the management team.
