Business continuity notice - 17 March 2020

17 Mar 2020

To our clients and partners,

With the expanding impact of the COVID-19 pandemic plus the heightened volatility in financial markets, we wanted to keep you updated on the measures that Zenith is taking to maintain our focus on delivering all research and consulting services to our clients and business partners, whilst also acting to maintain a safe work environment for our staff.

In brief,

• Our funds management research, consulting and reporting services continue to operate to the standards (and within the timeframes) that we have in place for them. We are committed to maintaining this.
• Further, we have increased our portfolio reporting and insights generation for our clients, recognising that this is an important way to support them and their clients during these times.
• We have been in regular contact with our critical service suppliers and are confident that they have taken the necessary steps to ensure that these service standards can be maintained during these times.
• We have cancelled the business travel plans of our staff in favour of ongoing telecommunication contacts with clients, fund managers and other critical service suppliers.
• We have reconfirmed our business preparedness for all staff to work remotely, including maintaining crucial contact with advisers and fund managers, as necessary.

We are confident that we have taken the necessary steps to ensure the continued, efficient operation of our business for our clients and we continue to closely monitor the situation as it evolves. We look forward to keeping in touch and hope that you won’t hesitate to contact us directly if you would like to discuss this matter any further.

Travel restrictions

Having cancelled all global business travel arrangements for our staff in February, (including a mandatory self-isolation policy for those travelling for personal reasons), we subsequently acted to cancel all domestic travel bookings as well from mid-March.

Our research meeting schedule with fund managers is a critical part of our service for clients, especially at a time of significant market volatility and client concern. In restricting the travel of our team, we have rescheduled all time-sensitive research meetings with fund managers to telecommunication contact and continue to conduct these meetings to the schedules that we have in place for them. Further, limited travel has afforded the team a little more time to be proactive with calls to managers to best understand their activity in current markets.

Operating remotely and team connectivity

We have long used remote access capabilities effectively to support employees conducting their work away from the office. Our inhouse IT team continues to maintain and support this capability, across all functions of the team, to ensure its productivity in extraordinary circumstances.

Critical suppliers

We continue to be in contact with our key service providers to ensure that our essential services, such as data supply and protection, technology support and development resourcing, remain fully operational to the standards required.