Asset Servicing

Following regulatory approval, Apex Group has completed its acquisition of Darwin Depositary Services, an Amsterdam-based provider of depositary services to alternative investment funds, the company announced this morning. Financial details were not disclosed.

Apex Group, a global financial services company with a major presence in Luxembourg, said on Wednesday that it has closed its acquisition of Implemented Investment Solutions, or IIS, and InvestNow in New Zealand.  Financial details were not disclosed.

Following Apex Group’s entry into the New Zealand market with the recent addition of MMC, the acquisitions of IIS and InvestNow further expand Apex Group’s presence in New Zealand and Australia to over 500 employees.

Dublin-based third-party management company Waystone on Tuesday said that it has closed its acquisition of Irish fund management services firm KB Associates in a transaction that makes it Ireland’s largest management company for Ucits funds.

As a result of the transaction, Waystone said it will welcome on board 90 new team members and will now support European management company assets exceeding 300 billion dollars. 

Amundi Group’s distribution platform Fund Channel has taken Caceis on board as a shareholder and now to plans to accelerate its growth in distribution in order to deliver on its ambition of nearly doubling its assets under intermediation by the end of 2025.  

Amundi is Europe’s  largest asset manager with some 1.86 trillion euro in assets under management. Since 2005, the firm has offered an open-architecture fund distribution platform called Fund Channel, designed as B2B platform for financial intermediaries.

The Luxembourg Stock Exchange on Tuesday launched a new, simplified post-trade settlement model that no longer requires a clearing membership. The exchange has partnered with Italy’s BFF Bank to provide the new service.

The new model simplifies the post-trade process of Luxembourg’s bourse, also known as LuxSE. The change “allows for a more streamlined and efficient settlement of securities transactions made on a channel encompassing 21,500 tradable instruments”, it said.

European Depositary Bank, a Luxembourg-based provider of banking, depositary and custody solutions part of the Apex Group, on Monday said it has been appointed by Mikro Kapital Management S.A., a Luxembourg-based alternative lender and a leading microfinance and sustainable investor in emerging markets, for the delivery of paying agent services for the firm’s new bond issuances.

Asset services provider Apex Group has announced a collaboration with BlackRock’s eFront to provide its ESG data consulting services to investors in private markets.

Plans by Paris-based Caceis to take over RBC Investor Services’ European business are raising redundancy fears among the firm’s 900 or so Luxembourg-based staff members in Belval.

FundRock, a Luxembourg-based third-party management company part of the Apex Group, said on Monday that it has expanded its relationship with UK-based fund manager Fundsmith to now include distribution services in Europe, particularly Italy.

In addition to existing ManCo services, FundRock’s distribution unit will now provide distribution services, enabling Fundsmith to distribute its funds in Europe. FundRock will provide specific resources and support to Fundsmith in the Italian market, the firm said.

HSBC has chosen Clearstream, Deutsche Börse’s Luxembourg-based post-trading service provider, as its global partner for administering investment fund activities for fund order routing, safekeeping, settlement and distribution support services.