ACA Compliance Group is expanding its GIPS verification and performance practice, ACA Performance Services, with the acquisition of Ashland Partners’ GIPS verification and performance practice.
The transaction is expected to close in June 2017. The financial terms of the transaction have not been disclosed.
Headquartered in Jacksonville, Oregon, Ashland Partners was founded in 1992 and offers GIPS verifications and performance services, as well as traditional accounting services such as audit/tax, SOC 1, custody exams, QPAM audits, and Agreed-Upon Procedures to the investment management industry.
Over 40 employees from Ashland Partners will join ACA through this transaction. The new team at ACA Performance Services will support over 1,000 recurring clients, including 49 per cent of the verified firms listed in the top 100 managers of institutional assets worldwide as ranked by Pensions & Investments magazine.
“Ashland’s focus has always been on serving a diverse range of investment managers,” says Richard Kemmling, president at Ashland Partners. “Combining the two largest providers of GIPS verifications will offer the clients of both firms continued exceptional service, access to additional networking opportunities, and increased expertise and experience in a continuously evolving industry.”
“Our clients expect ACA to provide the best and most experienced staff to service their engagements. We believe that investors will continue to push more asset managers to comply with the GIPS Standards, and this transaction best positions ACA for future growth in this space. We have also observed a growing need for performance assurance in general, and the addition of the Ashland performance team will allow us to expand further into the global performance assurance space,” says Justin Guthrie (pictured), partner at ACA Performance Services.
Ashland Partners will continue to offer traditional accounting services to its diverse global client base, which includes some of the largest institutional asset managers.
