In other fintech news, EBS & TORA collaborate, ZEDRA makes a key purchase, and Jordan & Jordan sells its MDR business.
M&G Extends Current Arrangement
M&G Corporate Services Ltd., a part of M&G plc, has picked State Street to provide outsourced middle office services in an arrangement that extends a 10-year partnership with M&G, officials say.
M&G is already getting fund accounting and custody services from State Street. The extension will mean that State Street can offer portfolio services, reference data, cash reporting, transaction management, asset servicing, and recordkeeping, officials say.
“State Street will perform these services largely relying upon BlackRock’s Aladdin platform licensed by M&G,” officials say. The agreement specifies that “a number of M&G employees will transfer to State Street in London under a TUPE [Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment)] arrangement by 1 July 2021.”
The extended agreement “is part of our five-year transformation program to position M&G for sustainable long-term growth,” says Roddy Thomson, M&G’s chief operating officer (COO), in a prepared statement.
Officials explain that State Street was one of the founding partners of Aladdin Provider, described as technology that connects asset managers and asset servicers via the Aladdin platform. State Street also uses the Aladdin data exchange (PDX), Aladdin Accounting, and the Aladdin middle office model.
EBS & TORA Unveil FX Collaboration
EBS, a provider of electronic trading platforms and technology services in foreign exchange (FX) markets, reports a collaboration with TORA, a provider of a cloud-based, multi-asset order and execution-management system (OEMS), to link EBS Market and EBS Direct’s FX liquidity with TORA’s multi-asset platform.
Via TORA, market participants will be able to connect directly to EBS, “enabling them to view prices for all spot FX, forwards, swaps and NDFs traded on EBS Market and EBS Direct side-by-side, along with prices for CME Group FX futures and other asset classes on one platform,” the companies say in their statement.
EBS is part of CME Group, the well-known operator of derivatives marketplaces.
TORA’s OEMS is “utilized by hundreds of the industry’s leading hedge funds, asset managers, proprietary trading firms and sell-side trading desks with a full suite of cloud-based SaaS-delivered execution, analytics and compliance tools, as well as order, portfolio and risk management capabilities and a global FIX network,” according to officials of the San Francisco-based vendor.
TORA’s statement also notes that it has “over 250 employees across offices in Hong Kong, Jersey, New York, Romania, Singapore, Sydney and Tokyo.”
ZEDRA Acquires BIL’s Fund Services Unit
ZEDRA Corp., founded in 2016, which characterizes itself as a “fund formation and administration provider,” has acquired the fund and corporate services (BFCS) unit of Banque Internationale à Luxembourg (BIL).
“The acquisition is in line with ZEDRA’s ambition to be recognized as a leading fund formation and administration provider globally,” says ZEDRA in a prepared statement, which notes that the acquisition follows the October 2020 appointment of Wim Ritz to be global head of funds.
In November 2018, Corsair Capital, a private equity firm, made a “substantial investment” in ZEDRA, officials say.
ZEDRA’s management team, which owns “a substantial portion of the business, is confident that the additional investment would enable ZEDRA to capitalize on its inherited know how and long-term relationships and do more to anticipate and meet … clients’ needs.”
Currently, BFCS numbers “high-net-worth individuals, asset managers, investment and real-estate fund professionals” among its clients, per the ZEDRA statement.
Following regulatory approval of the acquisition, BFCS staff will move to ZEDRA’s existing Luxembourg offices, the services provider adds.
TRG Screen Buys Jordan & Jordan’s MDR Business
TRG Screen, a provider of market data “enterprise subscription spend management” procedures and processes that was founded in 1998, reports that it has acquired Jordan & Jordan’s market data reporting (MDR) business. Jordan & Jordan is known as a major consultancy for Wall Street firms.
MDR from J&J is a “managed services solution focused on providing reporting and related services to ensure compliance with licensing, provisioning, distribution and reporting policies,” according to a statement from the companies.
As part of the terms of the acquisition, an unspecified number of “key Jordan & Jordan staff will move to TRG Screen providing continuity for clients and transfer of industry expertise,” per the statement. TRG Screen is owned by Pamlico Capital.
Brian DeCicco from the Berkery Noyes investment bank served as Jordan & Jordan’s financial advisor. The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
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