Fund administrator JTC acquires NES Financial in $40m deal

Combined fund administrator will service $130 billion across 19 countries.

By Jonathan Watkins

JTC Group has acquired alternatives fund administrator NES Financial for $40 million, as the Jersey-based service provider looks to bolster its offering in the US. 

The deal will see JTC increase the assets it services to $130 billion, and add over 50 employees from Boston and San Jose following the completion of the deal. 

The firm has been on an acquisition spree in recent years, following its 2018 listing on the London Stock Exchange. Since then the fund service provider has taken over Van Doorn CFS, Minerva Trust and Exequitive Partners SA.  

NES provides fund administration, treasury and related services to a client base which includes private equity, real estate and debt funds. The firm has also established itself as a leader in the provision of full-service fund administration solutions in the niche US markets of 1031 exchange funds, EB-5 funds and Qualified Opportunity Zone funds. 

“The US is a key growth market for the Group and we believe that NESF is the perfect partner and platform to drive the strategic expansion of our ICS Division and in particular our US fund administration business,” said Nigel Le Quesne, CEO of JTC. 

We have been in dialogue with the NESF team for around a year as a potential partner and provider of technology services and we are delighted to welcome them to the Group. NESF is much more than just a US-based fund administrator; it brings to the Group world-class technology capabilities developed in Silicon Valley, a hugely experienced and talented management team and staff, and a high-quality client book that encompasses private equity and real estate and market leading positions in several niche sectors.”  

In addition, JTC has acquired 20% of Harmonatea software as a service (SaaS) business that delivers supervised machine learning for the consumption, contextualisation and delivery of data, replacing the need for labour resources within the middle– and back-office functions of funds and fund administrators.  

Earlier this week, Kevin Walkup president and COO of Harmonate, penned an opinion piece for Global Custodian discussing how asset managers’ middle- and back-offices are struggling to keep up with COVID-19. 

«