Alternative fund administrators Conifer Group and Vastardis Capital Services have signed a definitive merger agreement to combine their respective businesses, and the new company will go under the name Conifer Financial Services.
Conifer’s current CEO, Jack McDonald, will become president and CEO of the combined company, while William Vastardis, founder and president of Vastardis, will become chairman.
The merger came as a result of a simple breakfast meeting back in May 2013 between McDonald and Vastardis without any specific intentions to merge, says McDonald, but after talking to each other, the firms realized the synergies and scale that a merger could bring. Conifer focuses on the hedge fund industry, while Vastardis has clients in the fund of fund, endowment/foundation, private equity, and venture capital spaces. And because of the different sectors the firms compete in, no major staff reductions are expected.
““We have different client bases today, and both organizations run very leanly and efficiently. Some of the synergies will come on the back-end processing and systems, but this really isn’t about trying to duplicate staff to do the same job. We think the employee overlap is minimal,” says McDonald.
Combined, the company will have assets under administration of more than $70 billion and offer trade execution services to over 200 clients worldwide. The two companies plan to merge their existing offices they both have in San Francisco and New York, and San Francisco, the current headquarters of Conifer, will become the headquarters for the new company.
While the firms work on integration, the companies have told clients they will continue to be served by their current client service teams, and there will be no immediate change to the respective front end reporting systems.
“Combining our two firms will yield significant benefits for our clients and employees and allows us to realize scale in an industry that increasingly demands it,” says McDonald. “The Conifer and Vastardis teams will continue to serve their clients seamlessly while augmenting our sophisticated technology and service offerings.”
“We are extremely excited to be joining with Jack and the Conifer team to create a larger and more global, independent fund administrator that will serve a variety of alternative asset management clients and institutional investors,” says Vastardis. “The newly formed firm will provide us with a tremendous platform to grow our business around the world, as well as give employees more opportunities for professional development and cross-training into new product areas.”
The companies expect the merger to close at the end of the first quarter of 2014 without any material challenges, following regulatory measures such as filings for offshore jurisdictions and customary closing conditions.
Conifer and Vastardis Sign Merger Agreement
Alternative fund administrators Conifer Group and Vastardis Capital Services have signed a definitive merger agreement to combine their respective businesses, and the new company will go under the name Conifer Financial Services.