Redington aims to help make 100m pension savers financially secure.

Redington is an independent investment consultancy providing a broad range of outcome orientated advice to some of the world's largest institutional investors.

We spoke to Mitesh Sheth, CEO at Redington, about the firm's growth plans and how being UK-based has helped its expansion into international markets.

What does your company do?

Redington is a 15-year-old firm that was started in London and founded by two entrepreneurs who came out of Merrill Lynch and who had worked in the solutions part of the investment bank.

As they looked at the UK corporate landscape and the huge pension funds that were sitting on corporate balance sheets, one of their reflections was that the software that the investment banks used to analyse the assets and liabilities over the long term, was superior to what anyone else was using. They set up Redington to ‘do for pensions for Jamie Oliver did for school meals.'

We are a mature start-up premised on better technology, better risk analytics and aligned with the end beneficiary. We want to make sure that people get the pensions they are promised and that corporates don't go out of business supporting those promises.

Today we are a provider of investment advice, research, analytics and software to some the largest institutional investors in the world, including global blue-chip organisations.

This year we are committing to aligning our default client advice with the goal of reaching net zero by 2050. Advising on more than £500 billion of assets for our clients, we estimate that our net-zero advice could help clients reduce their portfolios’ carbon emissions by 50% by 2030.

Tell us about your UK and global operations.

We have been hiring throughout the lockdown and will continue to do so throughout this pandemic. We are now a 210-person firm and we will be closer to a 300 person firm over the next couple of years. We are very much a UK-based start-up that is now expanding on the global stage.

The bulk of our operations are in London. When it came to software expertise, however, we looked around the world and found that regional UK has a phenomenal technology talent base at a cost that is competitive to elsewhere in the world. The core of our 60 strong software team is based in the Bristol/Bath area. Bristol in particular has a really nice balance of being entrepreneurial, having this phenomenal software talent and having people who have tended to work in investment organisations.

About three years ago we sent out a couple of people who had worked with us in the UK over the last decade and a half to set up our China business in Beijing and Shanghai. That has grown to about 10 people now. 

When it came to software expertise, we looked around the world and found that regional UK has a phenomenal technology talent base at a cost that is competitive to elsewhere in the world. Bristol, in particular, has a really nice balance of being entrepreneurial, having this phenomenal software talent and having people who have tended to work in investment organisations

What are the main benefits to being based in the UK?

When Chinese insurance companies want to hire their actuaries, they tend to hire those that have studied in London or Scotland. The UK really is the leader globally in investment and actuarial services. This strong reputation and desire to want to learn from the UK has helped us internationally. Chinese insurance regulators have been working with us to learn from the UK which is seen as having one of the world's best regulatory systems.

In London we also have some of the best investment talent in the world. There really isn't anywhere on the continent that competes from a diversity of investment talent perspective.

More recently, we think the leadership role the UK has taken on climate change and net zero emissions is fantastic. We see ourselves as playing an important part in getting to net zero. We think the UK and the financial industry will also play a big part in that. People like us and our peers have a really influential role to play there.

When Chinese insurance companies want to train their actuaries, they send them to London or Scotland. The UK really is the leader globally in investment and actuarial services. This strong reputation and desire to want to learn from the UK has helped us internationally

Tell us about your company's growth ambitions.

We believe we have a recipe that works, taking the seemingly long-term, uncertain and complex and giving organisations a clear plan how to navigate it. Our goal is to help 100m people become financially secure for the benefit of people and the planet.

We see expansion, primarily in Europe and Asia, with growth beyond pension funds to insurance companies, local government and through to charities, endowments and foundations around the world. Part of that growth will be organic, part of it may be by acquisition.