2014 was a great year for ML Capital. Following a period of successful asset raising and a number of fund launches, firm-wide assets broke through the USD1bn barrier to reach USD1.2bn. The distribution and European-regulated fund structuring specialist has achieved more than 100 per cent growth every year since it was established in 2009.
In 2013, ML Capital initiated the successful relocation of its headquarters to Dublin and invited the Smurfit family to partner with the business – supporting the future growth of the firm. Having launched the MontLake UCITS Platform in Ireland 5 years ago, Dublin was a logical choice for ML Capital to continue on its upward trajectory and tap into Dublin’s talent pool.
These factors – growth, a sustained period of successful asset raising and external backing from a prominent family – have in the words of current CEO Cyril Delamare (pictured) “moved us up the credibility ladder”.
“In terms of the opportunity set, one of the biggest drivers of growth on our MontLake UCITS platform is AIFMD; specifically in relation to non-European managers who haven’t had to embrace AIFMD and are now looking at their options for marketing into Europe,” says Delamare.
As the dust of AIFMD settles, US managers are starting to realise that the two main options, long-term, for European distribution will be to establish an AIFMD-compliant fund or a UCITS fund.
“We have a platform solution for both, but the advice we are giving managers is that if they can do it under UCITS, they should choose that option. The UCITS rules are clearer and the framework offers an USD8.8trn opportunity set.
“A lot of the conversations we are having currently are with both US and Asian managers looking to resolve their European distribution issues. The most interesting opportunities lie with those managers who have existing investor demand to reposition their existing offshore fund into UCITS,” says Delamare.
“We are looking to partner with quality fund managers with a successful track record whose strategies are in high demand with investors. Our quarterly research report, the ML Capital Alternative UCITS Barometer, helps drive our manager selection processes, enabling us to couple exciting managers with existing investor demand. It is also important to us that we have diversification across our platform.”
For fund hosting, ML Capital is building an infrastructure that will enable it to scale and support a wider range of funds, with Delamare noting that “there’s no specific capacity constraint on this part of the business. It’s a full-service offering. If a manager needs something they can view us an extension of their organisation.”
As for distribution, the priority for each sub-fund that joins MontLake is to raise the most assets possible. To achieve this, the in-house sales team will only look at complementary, not competing, strategies.
“Today, we have good representation across a lot of strategies but there are still gaps to fill e.g. Asia, Fixed Income, more US products. For a platform to work successfully you want investors to cross allocate to different funds; rotating out of one fund but then allocating to others on the platform. That’s the goal,” says Delamare.
On winning this year’s award, Delamare comments: “ML Capital has great ambitions going forward and winning this award will drive us to continue on our upward trend and cement our positioning within the market space as the leading UCITS platform provider.”
