Capital Dynamics spins off portfolio servicing arm

Fund of funds manager Capital Dynamics has spun off its portfolio servicing arm to focus on its core deal making activities.

The new business, called Colmore, will be a stand-alone business owned by management and external shareholders, which won’t include Capital Dynamics, its new chief executive officer Ben Cook told PEI.

“Capital Dynamics is going to be sharing infrastructure with us as we get going and make the transition. They are going to be a core client. (But) we are seeing GPs starting to outsource and carve out their back offices to focus on core activities, and there was an opportunity here to do that,” Cook said.

Cook, who was previously managing director at fund administrator Ipes London, says the firm will be carved out from Capital Dynamics with the full 50-strong team currently in place, and will take on the more than 1000 existing accounts.

The firm provides access to real-time investor information for investors in the closed end funds industry, including private equity, real estate, infrastructure and debt funds.

“We will load in quarterly movements and currency changes and are going to be able to plug in various political events and assess their impact,” Cook said, mentioning the German, French and Dutch elections, Trump’s inauguration, and the UK beginning the formal process of leaving the EU as key events which will impact markets this year.

Cook says the firm, which is based in the UK with offices in Switzerland and the US, will look to expand its US and Switzerland operations and is targeting a three to five hundred-strong staff in five years.

“We can’t wait to bring the solutions that Capital Dynamics’ clients have had access to for some time to a wider audience,” Cook said.

The 50-person Colmore team includes director Richard Lyons, who worked as a fund accountant at 3i prior to Capital Dynamics.

Capital Dynamics most recently closed a dedicated secondaries fund on $564 million after two years fundraising. Earlier this week Secondaries Investor revealed the firm as the buyer of Italian fund of funds Advanced Capital’s 2006 portfolio.