Augentius Fund Administration says it is now the second largest private equity, real estate and closed-end fund administration business in the world with assets under administration rea
Augentius Fund Administration says it is now the second largest private equity, real estate and closed-end fund administration business in the world with assets under administration reaching USD68bn at the end of last year.
Formed in 2003 with seven staff, Augentius has grown over the past six years to more than 110 employees, including 30 added over the past 12 months, and distributed nearly 20,000 quarterly and annual accounts to over 3,750 investors and limited partners during the course of last year.
Augentius has opened offices in New York, Hong Kong and Singapore during 2008, in addition to its established presence in London and Guernsey, and has plans for further geographic growth by adding further operations in Jersey, Luxembourg, Mauritius and Shanghai.
‘Our business model was based around the creation and delivery of a quality product’ says managing partner David Bailey (pictured second right). ‘All our clients’ funds are administered on a day to day basis by fully qualified accountants supported by specialised technology. This has proven to be a highly successful model and our business has grown far more quickly than we ever expected.
‘The outsourcing of private equity and property fund administration is becoming the norm rather than the exception, and our services are in high demand. Investors are demanding more and more detailed information about their investments and without the proper systems and resources it is difficult, time consuming and costly for fund managers to meet these LP demands. With GPs having to focus more and more of their time on portfolio issues the outsourcing of the fund administration is becoming an increasingly attractive option.’
‘Limited partners are also becoming much more focused on back-office issues,’ says managing partner J.P. Harrop (pictured far right). ‘We are increasingly seeing limited partners carry out formal due diligence on the administration processes prior to committing to a fund. This is the norm in other investment sectors and happening with increasing regularity in private equity and property funds.
‘Given the issues relating to Madoff this will only increase – investors are becoming increasingly cautious before making commitments to funds and need to be certain that proper procedures, resources and technology are in place to ensure they receive timely and accurate reporting from the fund. The involvement of third party administrators in this process is only likely to increase as investors seek more involvement from independent entities.’
The Augentius Fund Administration Group is a specialist fund administrator purely focused on the private equity and property fund sectors.
