(Bloomberg) --
The U.K. government has a new ally in its fight against Covid-19: hedge funds.
As the world's largest listed hedge fund, Man Group Plc is accustomed to making trades for its traditional and computer-driven strategies. Now it's using the science behind those tools to help tackle coronavirus.
“We answered the government's request for rapid assistance in modeling the Covid pandemic,” Chief Executive Officer Luke Ellis said on a call with analysts and investors on Thursday. “We're very proud to have been selected to bring our programming of complex ideas and data-science expertise and our computing power to help with this challenge.”
Ellis said the company had a social duty to commit resources to fighting the virus, and “it really wasn't good enough” that the U.K. had been using rigid response models with “fixed parameters.” While the government is easing lockdown measures, new cases and deaths are occurring on a daily basis and precautions are being urged to prevent a second wave from wreaking further havoc on the economy.
Man Group's own experience of the pandemic has been bruising. Its clients pulled the most cash in more than seven years in the second quarter, helping drag assets under management down to $108.3 billion from a record at the end of last year, the company said on Thursday.
“We are not doctors or public health experts,” Ellis said. “But we have world-class modeling, programming and data-science skills.”
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