18/01/2012 Author: Tony Griffiths

IMS Group acquires HedgeOp Compliance

The IMS Group, a London-headquartered governance, risk and compliance specialist with a sizable private equity backer, has acquired US-based HedgeOp Compliance, as part of its continuing plan to increase its global footprint through a buy-and-build strategy, HFMWeek can exclusively reveal.

The deal, completed on Sunday, will add about 200 US-based compliance clients to IMS’s current European customer-base of over 600. Around 40-50% of the firm’s clients are hedge funds.

The acquisition will be rebranded as ‘HedgeOp Compliance – an IMS Group company,’ and will retain its entire staff in their current roles as well as its offices in New York, Boston and San Francisco. Bill Mulligan, founder and CEO of HedgeOp, will continue in his role and report to IMS Group’s CEO, Michel van Leeuwen. The enlarged group will have over 100 staff.        

Speaking to HFMWeek, van Leeuwen said the firm would target and acquire as many suitable players as possible in each of the three  key regional time-zones: Emea, North America and Asia-Pacific.

Asia will be a focus in the near future, he added, but, with a number of interested parties left over from the HedgeOp deal, the US or Europe would most likely service the next acquisition.

“In theory, everywhere that the SEC or Finra have offices, we could have offices,” he said, referring to possibilities in the US.

“The SEC is based in Washington DC, so that’s a question we need to answer. Whether that is answered via another acquisition or not is another matter.”