Apex Ranked as a Leading Fund Administrator

Commenting on the announcement, Peter Hughes, Group Managing Director said,

I am very proud to be able to announce that Apex has been recognised in the Service Provider Rankings, produced by the global publication Hedge Funds Review, as the number two hedge fund administrator worldwide.

Voters included single manager funds, funds of hedge funds and investors into funds from around the globe. Over 50% of voters manage more than $1 billion and more than half of those participating in the rankings hold executive positions in their organisation.

Having achieved so much with our “Global Reach, Local Presence” strategy in a relatively short period of time since I established the business nine years ago, this result confirms my belief that Apex’s innovative approach can continue to lead our industry.

Apex, with AUA of around $23 billion, is about 30 times smaller than Citco. Yet with 300 employees in 28 offices across 20 countries, it has a global presence and business model that belies its size. “We have more people doing real accounting work in more places than any other administrator,” says Peter Hughes, Apex’s group managing director.

Having opened offices in Miami and San Francisco earlier this year, Apex plans to establish a Latin American base in Uruguay in December. “Our model is to be as close to clients as possible,” Hughes explains. “It is the opposite of the big administrators that have a commoditised model based around low-cost operations centres. That may be good for their P&L but it is not good for delivering fast, efficient and personal service to clients.”

The company’s model of “global reach, local service” is underpinned by a sophisticated cloud-based technology platform, which means it can operate seamlessly across borders. It also allows Apex to offer some impressive functionality to clients. In February, it launched Apex Funds 247, an online reporting tool that allows fund managers and investors to create customised reports quickly with verified portfolio data.

This is the first step in a wider initiative to increase transparency and access to investment portfolios, according to Hughes. “We are moving towards providing real-time risk and P&L to the iPhones and iPads of managers and investors. We could even offer risk, portfolio and order management systems through mobile technologies, so people can manage their investments on the move in real time.”

By the end of the year, Apex will make a cloud-based portfolio and order management system available to clients. “We’re not just an administrator. We are a total solution provider with a full suite of services to asset managers globally and we can deliver everything locally on a global scale,” says Hughes.

Service Provider Rankings 2012 details available at Risk.net

Fund administrator (single managers)
1 Citco Fund Services (25.4%)
2 Apex Fund Services (14.8%)
3 Meridian Fund Services (11.9%)
4 JP Fund Administration (9.6%)
5 SS&C GlobeOp (7.8%)

Fund administrator (FoHFs)
1 Citco Fund Services (28.0%)
2 Apex Fund Services (15.6%)
3 Meridian Fund Services (11.9%)
4 SS&C GlobeOp (11.6%)
5 JP Fund Administration (6.8%)

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