18/01/2012 Author: Will Wainewright

Hedgeserv adds to London staff and plans new unit

Hedgeserv, the rapidly growing fund administrator, is set to expand its London head count this year and launch a private equity fund admin unit based on its hedge fund offering, HFMWeek has learned.

The administrator was ranked 14th in HFMWeek’s AuA survey in November 2011 after seeing assets under management surge by 30%, to $91bn, during 2011.

Around 150 personnel were added to its European headquarters in Dublin last year – where operations, accounting and investor services are based – and it was announced in October a further 300 will be added.

Leo LaForce, Hedgeserv’s managing director, told HFMWeek that the firm’s London base, which opened in September and focuses on business development and client management, could see another five members of staff join.

“Dublin will always be our European HQ but we will build out our London office as needed to satisfy manager and investor demand,” said LaForce.

“It is an exciting time for the company as we launch our new private equity admin firm, to which we will be applying the same philosophy as we have in the hedge fund sector.”

Shadow administration, where a second admin is contracted to double-check the work of the existing provider, is another focus area, with HedgeServ already providing the service to a multi-billion-dollar hedge fund.

“We are seeing a growing trend towards operational transparency, which is of core significance to shadow administration,” adds LaForce. “We can show clients the work we do, on their screen. It means complete visibility, and allows managers to use our systems to check over the work done by their existing provider themselves.”