Dexia fund arm sale suffers setback

The acquisition of Dexia Asset Management by private equity firm GCS Capital seems to stumble says Ignite. This looks like a déjà vu: Deutsche Bank wasn't able to sell its fund admin arm to Guggenheim. Other deals did materialize, e.g.: BlackRock acquired Credit Suisse’s ETF business and Orix Corporation closed on Robeco, Rabobank's fund business.

Dexia agrees sale of fund unit for €380m

Finally Dexia has sold its asset management arm although for much less than originally indicated. The buyer, GCS Capital, interestingly is tightly linked to Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (“ICBC”), so GCS' own press release. ICBC has quite a history and has been looking to tap into various acquisition opportunities throughout recent years not only in Europe.

Seems major acquisitions of asset management units are still possible in Western Europe; possibly a relief for those who tried and failed over the last two years...

Allianz und Deka arbeiten zusammen

Die AGI und die Deka gründen, so die gestrige Pressemeldung, eine Service-KAG, in der die Fondsbuchhaltung beider Systeme zusammengelegt werden soll.

Mit (laut Pressemeldung) 1900 Fonds schließt man zu den großen Servicegesellschaften der Branche auf (Luxemburg mit der Dexia und der BNP mit eingeschlossen).

Der Systemzusammenschluß ist m.E. auch deswegen sinnvoll, weil die AGI schon seit längerer Zeit auf dem System ihre Fonds verwaltet, zu dem die Deka gerade hinmigriert: SimCorp Dimension.

"Es wird keine Kündigung geben, sondern eher einen sanften Personalaufbau", sagte ein Sprecher von Allianz Global Investors. Mittelfristig bedeutet das wohl eine Entspannung für den überhitzten Markt für Fondsbuchhalter - sofern die Skaleneffekte genutzt werden können.

Innovation Awards

Financial-i has identified the winners for 2006 in several categories, defined by an impressive number of analysts and consulters. Amongst the categories is "The most innovative fund administration and accounting solution". The winner is: SunGard, and they are referring to...InvestOne (not V3 or GP3)! You may want to have a look into my other post here (in German), where I have reflected on Sungards strategy in Germany.

Interesting sidemark: The company to watch was identified to be IGEFI. What does its CEO Bertil Rouveure focus on as the differentiation product feature is his note there ? "However, its outstanding feature is the ability to comprehensively service both mutual fund and hedge fund requirements. "

Other memorable awards are:

The most innovative order management solution: Charles River.f Company to watch: LatentZero

The most innovative securities services provider in Europe: BNP Paribas. Company to watch: RBC Dexia Investor Services

The most innovative reference data solution: Asset Control. Company to watch: Capco

You can find the awards in detail as a PDF here.

Dexia Securities France and Atos Euronext Market Solutions announce their partnership approach to offer brokers a MiFID solution

Find the Article here