LBS to become “Davos of Finance”

London Business School has received £10m ($15m) from AQR Capital to set up what the US-based hedge fund is billing as the “Davos of finance”.

Spread over ten years, the cash will be used to create an investment institute, dubbed the AQR Institute of Asset Management, within the school, which will support specialised research, fund academic prizes, and create an annual conference.

AQR, set up in 1998 by former Goldman Sachs portfolio manager Clifford Asness, will not be involved in the management of the institute. However, it is expected that the institute will provide a talent and research pool which AQR could later draw on.

Ralph Koijen, director of the institute, told news provider Financial Times that the unit will focus its research on the intersection of finance, economics, and accounting, with early projects looking into active fund management, the impact of portfolio construction, and retirement savings for an ageing society.