A new fund services provider has been launched in Cape Town, South Africa, to offer middle office services to the South African investment manager market.
Centro Fund Services, a joint venture between middle and back office service provider Point Nine, Prime Administration and the IDS Group, intends to fill the vacuum left by the departure from the market of J.P Morgan, which recently sold its TASC Administration unit to Old Mutual and Sanlam Investment Management. The sale led to a reduction in the number of providers in the market that can service small and medium sized fund managers.
Services to be offered by Centro include day to day portfolio administration covering trade capture, counterparty trade reconciliations, settlements, reconciliations with other third party such as fund administrators, prime brokers and custodians, administering corporate actions and delivering related reports.
Centro will allow fund managers and investors the ability to maintain oversight of the middle office function by providing real time access to a range of reporting including transactions, positions, shadow NaV and counterparty risk.
The Point Nine proprietary developed web-based operations platform Circle will provide the backbone of the South African operation.
Prime Administration provides back and middle office administration support to South African hedge fund managers.
Commenting on the launch of Centro, Ian Hamilton, CEO of IDS Group, says:Our experience with international investment managers is that many medium sized fund managers are using third party services providers so they can concentrate on the investment decision making.
We believe there is an excellent opportunity to introduce their international expertise to the South African market. We have also had a long standing working relationship with Prime Administration and their involvement completed the circle.
We are excited that by harnessing the use of a proven international system, the experience of a local settlement team and the strength of the IDS marketing reach we will be able to provide a cost effective and efficient solution for investment managers.
Hamilton added that the services will be available to all South African investment managers, including hedge fund managers.
The beauty of the Circle, being proprietary technology, is that it is counterparty agnostic. This enables Circle to provide a single set of books and records for transactions processed through multiple brokers, custodians and administrators, adds Graeme Rate of Prime Administration.
(JDC)