JTC buys US fund services business Essential Fund Services

European fund administrator JTC bought US fund services business Essential Fund Services (EFS), seeking to take advantage of growth opportunities and expand its US footprint.

New York-based EFS offers a broad range of services in the alternative assets space, including accounting, reporting and administrative services to investment partnerships and their investment managers.

JTC said the deal is “extremely complementary” to its recent acquisition of SALI Fund Services. EFS is one of the leading independent providers of fund accounting services to the Insurance Dedicated Fund market, where SALI is the established market leader, JTC noted.

Jersey-based JTC said the US is an important growth market for fund services, including alternative asset classes, where there are fewer fund admin services than in Europe.

EFS currently provides services to 45 clients across 110 investment partnerships and has around $5.5 billion of assets under administration.

The company was co-founded in 2009 by the present managing member and sole owner, Gerard Federici. Federici will continue to lead the business and all current EFS employees will join JTC as part of the group’s Institutional Client Services (ICS) Division.

“The acquisition of EFS is another high-quality addition to our strategically important and fast-growing US business. The existing relationship with SALI Fund Services will help to enable further growth for both businesses as part of the group,” JTC chief executive Nigel Le Quesne said.

There has been a good deal of M&A activity in the fund admin space in recent years, in part because clients want their admins to be one-stop shops.

This year has been a busy one for acquisitions in the fund admin market. Gen II Fund Services, one of the US’s largest independent fund administrators, in August boosted its Western coverage with the acquisition of Denver private fund servicer Stone Pine Accounting.

In May, fund admin Apex acquired $13 billion Israeli fund administrator Tzur Management.

Also in May, Luxembourg-based fund administrator Alter Domus acquired Investors Economic Assurance, a Manhattan-based technology services business that specializes in capital administration, marking Alter Domus’s third US-based acquisition in six months.