MSCI has put 15 of its staff on consultation as it looks to cut costs following its $125m (£80m) purchase of IPD Group in 2012.
Those at risk of redundancy include executive director Phil Tily, while managing director Laurent Ternisien has already agreed his departure from the business. Tily and Ternisien have been at the business for 23 and 15 years respectively.
Also on consultation is head of alternatives and vice president Mark Weedon. The remainder of those who are part of the process are understood to be predominantly “backroom staff”.
IPD is used by many in the commercial real estate industry for providing benchmarks of performance across the sector, especially in the fund management sphere. IPD’s real estate data includes 80,000 properties valued at £1.1tn across 33 countries.
The IPD business forms part of the indexing arm of MSCI and there had been a large amount of duplication of roles following the acquisition.
IPD co-founders Rupert Nabarro and Ian Cullen will continue on as consultants to the business on an ad hoc basis and Peter Hobbs, managing director of research, also remains.
Since the takeover the new owners have sought to increase the price of the IPD product, which has resulted in resistance from some customers.
When the deal to sell IPD was completed, the annual turnover of the company was £38m and it generated a £4m profit. Since then, it is understood that profits have decreased despite investment into areas such as IT and sales staff.
IPD was unavailable for comment.
