(Pictured: Andy Grimes)

Winton Capital Group, the UK-based quant shop, has opened its Sydney office as part of a global expansion program for this year. Offices in Tokyo and New York are to follow.

As previously reported, Winton has tapped Platinum Asset Management for its Australian rep – Andy Grimes. Before Platinum, where he had been an institutional investment specialist for the past five years, Grimes was a consultant at Towers Watson and, before that, at McKinsey & Co.

David Harding, Winton’s chair, said that, apart from opening up a new market, the appointment would “complement our expertise in scientific research and financial mathematics”. Grimes studied material science, economics and mathematics at Oxford University.

Winton is a very pointy-headed manager. Of its 300 staff, about 140 are “scientific researchers” with PhDs and Masters degrees at specialist campuses in London, Oxford, Zurich and Hong Kong. It manages about A$25 billion in mainly equity and futures strategies.