Butterfield Fund Services to merge with Fulcrum Group

(CNS): Subject to regulatory and governmental approvals, Butterfield Fund Services will be merging with the Fulcrum Group to create Butterfield Fulcrum Group (BFG). Headquartered in Bermuda, BFG will have approximately 400 employees in ten locations across nine countries, with close to $100 billion in assets under administration from nearly 1,000 hedge funds, fund of funds, private equity and institutional investment management clients.  The new firm is expected to rank amongst the top ten independent alternative asset fund administration companies in the world.

“This is an enormous win-win for both companies that will leverage sales and operational capabilities of Fulcrum Group, and the tremendous customer relationships and global reputation of Butterfield Bank Group.” said Akshaya Bhargava, Chief Executive Officer of Fulcrum Group.  “Our vision is to create the best fund administration company in the world.”

 Alan Thompson, President and Chief Executive Officer of Butterfield said the merger will result in significant business growth, more services for fund administration customers and career opportunities for employees. “In BFG, Butterfield and Fulcrum are creating a company that will have a powerful presence in fund administration globally,” he added.

 Bhargava will become the Chief Executive Officer of BFG and Jill Considine, current Chairman of the Fulcrum Group, will be Chair of the BFG Board. Thompson and Graham Brooks, Executive Vice President, International at Butterfield will also join the BFG Board.

“This merger brings together two highly complementary fund administrators to offer a full-service platform of significant scale that has a business model and operational structure to achieve industry leadership,” said Considine. “BFG will be able to leverage the market reputation of one of the world’s premier banks, a very efficient operating platform and a highly talented and motivated management team.”

 In a statement released Tuesday, 5 August the two firms said they shared common corporate values and a customer centric, personalised service approach. BFG’s global operations model and use of many industry best practices is expected to significantly enhance the company’s ability to meet increasingly complex demands from its customers. Representatives of both Fulcrum and Butterfield added that the seamless delivery of client services during the integration is a top priority.

“Clients will continue to receive the same high levels of service and from the same relationship centres while the two companies are being integrated,” said Bhargava.  

Merrill Lynch acted as a third-party adviser to Fulcrum Group on the agreement, while UBS Investment Bank advised Butterfield. Fulcrum group is a global administrator for hedge funds and the alternative asset management industry, backed by global private equity firm, 3i, and Butterfield Fund Services (BFS), provides  administration services for investment and pension funds and part of The Bank of N. T. Butterfield & Son Limited (Butterfield). Under the merger Butterfield will retain a substantial equity stake and 3i, an existing shareholder in Fulcrum Group, will own a majority interest in Butterfield Fulcrum Group.