Multi-award-winning hedge fund administrator Opus Fund Services was established in Bermuda in 2006, subsequently expanding its footprint into the US with offices in Chicago (2008), San Francisco (2009), New York (2013) and Portland (2014). It serves over 250 fund managers and 425-plus funds with a combined AUM approaching USD13 billion.
2016 has been a year of organic growth for Opus, as evidenced by the recent establishment of a new operations centre in Manila, The Philippines.
“This development provides a scalable round the clock support mechanism to greatly increase processing power and allow us to deliver our innovative technology platform and institutional grade service at a price point out of reach of many competitors,” says Christian Pollard, Head of Shared Services at Opus.
The Manila operation will help Opus work towards providing full 24-hour coverage.
“There’s strong talent in Manila, and it made sense to us to select The Philippines as our operations centre in SE Asia. It all goes towards making us internally more efficient with our workflows and enhance what we are able to do for our clients on multiple fronts,” says Jorge Hendrickson (pictured), Head of Sales and Business Development in Opus’s New York office.
Indeed, in addition to opening up the Manila office, Opus has also commenced construction on new operations offices in Naperville, Illinois. Comprising nearly 13,000 sq ft of prime commercial real estate, the new offices will enable the Opus team to double in size. Opus has also successfully completed the expansion of its Portland, Oregon operations offices, and the team in New York has also risen over the past few months with more hires underway. In total, Opus now has approximately 100 employees.
As of 1 June 2016, Opus has onboarded 74 new funds across 54 client relationships this year, representing a 21% growth in the number of funds it services on the platform. Nearly three quarters of that growth (72%) has come from the following strategies: public equities and derivatives, private equity/venture capital and marketplace/direct lending strategies.
“Marketplace and direct lending continue to be big growth areas for us, and private equity and venture capital have also been strong areas of growth, both in terms of new launches and client conversions from other administrators or from self-administration. It is diversified growth, not concentrated in a small number of client wins or one specific area of the marketplace,” explains Hendrickson, noting that Opus now has approximately 440 funds on the platform.
As Opus grows and takes on new clients, the focus remains on delivering robust solutions and as clients themselves grow, still doing so at a price point that makes sense.
“That’s really been a theme at Opus since inception. We see ourselves as the “value-buy” within the fund administration industry” adds Hendrickson.
At the same time, Opus is aware of not wanting to spread itself too thin by offering too many services.
“We will always stick to fund administration,” says Hendrickson. “We’re not about to start providing risk services or capital introduction or tax services – areas that other administrators have moved in to. We want to be diversified, but solely within our sphere of fund administration.”
In conclusion, Hendrickson comments: “We’ve put a lot of hard work in over the last 12 months and highly value winning the award this year. We really appreciate the recognition.
