Global Prime Partners, a prime brokerage service offering securities services and prime brokerage to new or smaller hedge funds, has launched in London.
Prime brokerage is dominated by the presence of Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse. However a plethora of smaller prime brokers, such as Gar Wood Securities and Merlin have flourished as the bigger primes focus on larger clients.
These mini-primes have tended to congregate in North America; however GPP prime brokerage service, led by Kevin M. LoPrimo, managing director and head of hedge fund services, is the first mini-prime to be launched in Europe.
GPP will focus on smaller funds with less than $100 million in assets.
Jefferies, KAS Bank and Nomura will provide clearing and custody services.
GPP has also formed a partnership with Olivetree Securities, the equities intermediary brokerage firm.
The smaller end of the hedge fund market is clearly underserved outside of the US, said Daryn Kutner, CEO and founder of Olivetree. We have created our service to specifically address the needs of that growing market segment.
The mini-prime landscape is not all growth. In August Lighthouse Financial, a mini-prime broker based in New York, suspended trading activities.