Candover Investments, the U.K. private equity investment trust, has outsourced its back-office operations to private equity fund administrator Ipes.
Candover says outsourcing will enable the trust to reduce costs and return cash to shareholders. The trust conducted a formal tender process, after which it settled on Ipes.
Our No. 1 priority is delivering value for our shareholders, and we therefore needed to find an efficient and cost-effective solution for managing our back-office requirements, says Malcolm Fallen, chief executive for Candover. After analysing various options, we decided to outsource.
Ipes will manage all of Candovers back-office operations from its U.K. office. Ipes will do fund accounting, company secretarial including stock market notification and statutory reporting to investors for the London Stock Exchange-listed trust.
The experience of the Ipes listed funds team stood out and they have an excellent reputation in the market, Fallen says. The quality of their systems, and in particular the level of tailoring and their understanding of the listed private equity sector, was a major influence in our decision.
Andrew Whittaker, managing director for Ipes U.K., adds: We are delighted to be working with Candover. This is an important piece of business for Ipes and it builds on our growing client base in listed funds as more firms in this sector look to outsource.
Earlier this month Ipes achieved AAF 01/06 accreditation for quality control following a six-month review by Ernst & Young of its U.K. and Channel Islands offices.
(CG)