BUSINESS MODEL & STRATEGY
The Group is a business division of Amicorp Group, which is a multinational organisation providing, in addition to fund administration services, a broad range of corporate management, capital market and financial services to clients globally with a dedicated network of international experts and specialists.
The Group is a provider of fund administration services, regulatory reporting, fiduciary services and multi-faceted business support alternatives for hedge funds, private equity funds and family offices investing in listed or unlisted equities, financial instruments, projects, real estate and various asset classes locally or globally.
The Group also provides administration and fiduciary services to special purpose vehicles associated with fund structures or entities with passive investment on financial instruments.
The Group is currently supporting more than 440 funds clients with assets under administration (“AuA”) in excess of US$7 billion. Clients include alternative asset managers, financial institutions, corporations, family offices, ultra-high net worth individuals and institutional investors.
The Group currently employs over 100 people globally and operates in 14 different jurisdictions, including in several major financial centres (including Singapore, Hong Kong, Malta, Luxembourg, the UK, Curacao, Chile, Brazil and Mexico), as well as operating outsourcing centres in Bangalore and Mauritius.
The Group has strong recurring revenues from its well-diversified client base with no single client accounting for more than 5% of the revenue received during the financial year ending 31 December 2022.
The Group’s business is derived from regulatory requirements in jurisdictions where funds are domiciled to have independent fund administration. Moreover, as the levels of regulation have increased over recent years, there has been an increasing trend for asset managers, institutions and family offices to shift towards outsourcing administrative and other services to specialist service providers in order to focus their resources on their core businesses instead of increasing administration, regulatory and reporting requirements.
AFS provides a comprehensive and tailored range of services these include:
- Fund administration & Investor Services: Fund onboarding, fund accounting, fund administration, in-house NAV calculation, investor services including Register & Transfer Agency services, booking of subscriptions & redemptions, audit liaison/support, real time oversight over investment performance.
- Regulatory & Compliance Services: FATCA and CRS reporting services, Directorship services, Fiduciary, Anti-Money Laundering (AML) officer services in compliance with international rules and regulations including administrative support to the Board and Committees of the Board.
- Business Process Outsourcing Services: Simplifying accounting and administration services through automated accounting processes and providing management insight into business operations through regular and consistent management reporting.
The Group holds fund administration licenses in seven jurisdictions and is planning to obtain licenses in the following jurisdictions:
- AIF depositary -lite license in Luxembourg;
- fund administration license in Ireland; and
- fund administration license in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
To date, the Group’s business development has largely been based on organic growth with its sales team spreading into MEAI, Europe and Latam and its fund clients are mostly comprised of “start-up” asset managers with initial AuM in the approximate range of US$10m to US$20m. The Group is well placed to support these “start-up” asset managers by leveraging its experience and expertise in applicable regulatory, financial, compliance, structuring, taxation and reporting requirements.
In addition to traditional asset managers, the Group supports family offices who choose to establish their own fund structures in order to more efficiently and transparently manage their assets spread over multiple jurisdictions within a well-defined regulatory framework.
The Group’s strategy is to continue to grow its revenues through further organic growth and by potential acquisition growth.
The Group intends to achieve the following objectives via its continuous organic growth strategy:
- to expand its sales network, expertise and geographical reach to capture the growth drivers;
- to capture potential revenue increases among its existing client base by expansion of service offerings, including but not limited to ESG reporting and depositary lite services; and
- to enhance IT automation in relation to fund administration as well as regulatory and compliance processes to generate economies of scale, improve margins and to tap into a more lucrative client base, including funds with higher AUM.
The Group intends to expand its sales effort to strengthen existing referral relationships and to extend geographical locations especially in financial centres such as Hong Kong, Switzerland, UK, US, Dubai, Luxembourg and Singapore and emerging financial hubs such as Spain, India, Chile, Peru, Mexico and Brazil.
In October 2021, the Group acquired an authorised fund administrator, ECUS, in Chile. The authorisation held by ECUS is a prerequisite for providing fund administration services to “public” funds in Chile. Thisis instrumental in providing fund services in Mexico, Peru and other Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America.
The Group will continue to seek out acquisition opportunities with the aim of:
- enhancing incremental EBITDA;
- enhancing the Group’s sales networks;
- enhancing the Group’s licence networks;
- acquiring skilled workers both in sales and operations;
- adding economies of scale to the Group’s current operational model;
- strengthening the Group’s existing service delivery platform, in terms of improving efficiencies and the scope and quality of services offered; and
- extending the Group’s client base.
The Group’s fund clients are alternative fund managers who implement multiple investment strategies across various assets. The funds are typically organised into different fund structures, predominantly corporate entities and limited partnerships domiciled in popular fund jurisdictions such as the Cayman Islands, Luxembourg and Singapore.
Moreover, the funds can be open-ended or close-ended. Private equity funds tend to be structured as close-ended, whilst hedge funds tend to be structured as open-ended.
The Board believes that fund administration services for both open-ended and close-ended alternative funds will continue to provide growth opportunities for the Group and its competitors. Preqin estimates that by 2023, global assets held in alternative funds will reach US$14 trillion (source: Preqin – The Future of Alternatives, October 2018).