TCC takes £10 million fund investment

The Consulting Consortium, a UK based regulatory compliance consultancy for FSA regulated businesses, has taken a £10 million investment from the British Growth Fund in return for a minority stake in the business.

TCC is slightly unusual for a regulatory compliance business in that alongside its consultancy services it has developed a SaaS solution called RecordSure which monitors and analyses telephone calls for compliance purposes.

TCC has been a beneficiary of the rapid growth in the need for regulatory advice in an increasingly complex compliance environment and has been growing fast.  In December 2013 it was named in the Sunday Times Virgin Fast Track's Top 100

TMF Group shows commitment to fund admin by acquiring remaining stake in Custom House

TMF Group, the Doughty Hanson-backed corporate services firm which previously owned 51% of Custom House Global Fund Services, has agreed to acquire the remaining 49%.

Custom House provides administration services to the alternative investment sector.  TMF Group has an existing fund administration offering spanning  Rotterdam, Sydney, Geneva, Sofia and Malta, but the acquisition will significantly increase its middle and back office capability in the alternatives investments space.  The combined group will offer fund services from 14 global locations, with almost $40 billion of assets under administration.

Dermot Butler, who founded Custom House some 25 years ago, will become President of TMF Custom House Global Fund Services, and Mark Hedderman will remain as CEO.

This transaction is subject to regulatory clearance but completion is expected by June 2014.

Electra Partners buy Ogier Fiduciary

Electra Partners have agreed to buy Jersey head-quartered Ogier Group's fiduciary services business for £180 million.

The deal sees an £83 million equity investment, with debt being financed by HSBC, Lloyd's and RBS.

The deal is a vote of confidence in Ogier Fiduciary's management team and the offshore financial services business.  It is expected that the investment will enable the management team to expand its overseas operations.

Butterfield acquires Legis trust business

Bermuda head-quartered Bank of NT Butterfield & Son Limited (“Butterfield”) has announced that it is to acquire the trust and corporate services business of Guernsey based Legis Group (“Legis”).

Thirty-five staff will move from Legis to Butterfield in the deal, which is Butterfield’s first acquisition since 2007, when it acquired the Bentley Reid Group.  Butterfield Group operates it trust business from five jurisdictions: the Bahamas, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Guernsey and Switzerland.

Essentially, the deal (which remains subject to regulatory approval) will hive off Legis’s private client business to Butterfield, leaving Legis, and the 50 or so staff who will remain with it, to focus on fund administration and tax advisory services. 

Legis was established over 30 years ago by partners of Ozannes law firm (now part of Mourant Ozannes) and was acquired by the management team in 2011.  The Butterfield transaction follows a trend for specialization within the industry.

AnaCap-backed First Names Group continues its acquisition agenda

The First Names Group (formerly IFG International), the Isle of Man head-quartered trust company continues its rapid expansion with the acquisition of Mercator Trust in Guernsey.

This is the fourth acquisition for FNG since AnaCap backed its buy out in July 2012.  FNG has previously acquired the Basel Group, Citadel and Moore Management and this latest acquisition, which remains subject to regulatory approval, will take staff head-count over 520 people, making it one of the larger offshore fiduciary groups.

FNG now has offices in IoM, Jersey, Guernsey, Cyprus, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Ireland, UK, BVI and Japan, although its remains primarily IoM and Channel Islands centric in terms of headcount.

Mercator has existed for over 30 years in Guernsey, and originally spun out of an accountancy firm.

Mercator’s trust and corporate services business will change its name to First Names Group later this year, while its funds business will be incorporated into the Moore Management brand.

FNG is following a buy-and-build strategy which has been adopted by many of the private-equity backed fiduciary services businesses, including Intertrust, Vistra, TMF, Sanne Group, Hawksford and JTC.  They all seek to build scale in what remains a fragmented market with regulatory pressures pushing smaller firms into consolidation.