By Jessica Toonkel
NEW YORK, March 8 (Reuters) - Numeric Investors is puttingitself up for sale, Mike Even, president and chief executiveofficer of the Boston-based asset management firm told Reuterson Friday.
The quantitative equity manager, with $7.7 billion in assetsunder management, has hired Barclays PLC to oversee thesale, Even said.
The firm is coordinating the sale with its private equitypartner, TA Associates, which has held a minority stake inNumeric since 2004, Even said.
"We feel now is a good time to sell for us from a returnspoint of view and for TA for where they are in their investmentcycle," Even said.
A call to TA was not immediately returned. A Barclaysspokesman declined to comment.
The sales process will be targeted at certain potentialbuyers, but is now in the "very early stages," he said.
Even implied that the firm is looking for a strategic buyer,as opposed to another private equity investor. Private equityinvestors traditionally sell companies they invest in after afew years.
"What I really want is a permanent partner and I would likea relationship by which we can maintain our investment focus,"Even said.
Numeric, whose clients are institutional investors such aspension plans, specializes in quantitative equity investing, bywhich managers use models, or screens, to choose stocks fortheir portfolios.
Quantitative equity managers, like all equity managers, werehit hard by the financial crisis, said Greg Carlson aMorningstar Inc analyst.
But unlike other equity managers, quant managers havestruggled to recover over the past few years because these fundsfocus on fundamentals, while much of the comeback in equityinvesting has been due to macro economic changes, Carlson saidon Friday.
In 2007 Numeric got out of the mutual fund business, closingits four funds, which at the time had $456 million in assets,according to Morningstar.