Guernsey Press

Fund assets increase puts island firmly on the map

THE Guernsey fund industry has strengthened overall, according to new research.

Published
(26896199)

Fund assets serviced in the island increased to $412bn at the end of June 2019, up 3.2% compared to 2018, according to the 25th edition of Monterey Insight’s Guernsey fund report – the independent fund research company.

Serviced schemes stood at 1,065 while the total number of sub-funds reached 1,289, slightly down from the previous year with 1,077 and 1,363 respectively in 2018.

For fund administration services, Northern Trust remained the largest by total net assets of $65bn and by number of sub-funds (185). Aztec Group rose from fourth position in 2018 to second this year with $50.7bn of assets, followed by Apex Fund Services with $44.2bn.

Northern Trust also maintained its lead position for custody and transfer agency services respectively with $25.7bn and $56.6bn. BNP Paribas Securities Services preserved its second position in the custody table of serviced funds with $10.7bn ahead of Kleinwort Hambros’ $6.4bn.

Karine Pacary, managing director of Monterey Insight, said: ‘We are pleased to reveal the new results of the Guernsey fund industry in our 25th edition of our Monterey Guernsey Fund Report.

‘Guernsey demonstrated strong returns during the last year and managed to once again attract major players to launch their private equity funds.

‘We also notice a strong increase of infrastructure schemes, which has been the trend for a few years now.

‘By taking a closer look at the results, we can see that those positive results were of benefit to a select group of service providers, in an overall context, the Guernsey fund industry has strengthened.’

Among the transfer agents, Apex Fund Services maintained second position with $44.2bn and Aztec Group Partners climb to third position with a total of $43.9bn.

The ranking for auditors was unchanged. PwC maintained its leading position, auditing 355 funds and sub-funds, ahead of KPMG with 261 funds and sub-funds and EY ranked in third position.

By assets, ranking for auditors was reversed. KPMG led with $132.9bn followed by PwC in second position with $111bn and Deloitte in third spot with £61bn.

Among legal advisers, the ranking was unchanged from last year.

Carey Olsen kept its lead, offering legal advice to 798 funds, followed in second place by Mourant with 157 funds and Ogier in third position with 59.

On the market share ranking of assets, Carey Olsen also took the top spot with $307bn, ahead of Mourant.

Among fund managers, the largest promoter/initiator of funds serviced in Guernsey was Apax Partners with $37.2bn.

Cinven climbed to the second position with $26.3bn followed by Permira with $19.9bn.

Although overall the number of group and funds slightly decreased, 94 funds and sub-funds domiciled in Guernsey were launched during the year, accounting for $26.3bn in assets. Forty-nine sub-funds were private equity/venture capital with a total net asset of $17.3bn.

The most popular product remained private equities funds, accounting for $242.3bn, followed by infrastructure funds with $43.5bn – a 10.3% increase overall compared with 2018.