ML Capital is an independent European regulated fund structurer that is rightly well known for its MontLake UCITS and MontLake QIAIF platforms, the success of which has seen firm-wide AUM grow to EUR5 billion since its inception in 2009.
However, ML is more than that. With a newly established footprint in Luxembourg that takes the firm beyond its Dublin home base, ML Capital can support fund managers in Europe’s two main fund jurisdictions in a far-reaching capacity that goes beyond being just the operator and investment manager of MontLake. As Cyril Delamare (pictured), CEO of ML Capital, articulates, the firm is a fund solutions provider from an operational and management company perspective.
“When a manager is looking to launch a product, we start with a clean slate,” says Delamare. “ML will tailor the product from a strategy perspective, but also from an investor perspective. It’s all about helping them to structure the product, such that it will be compatible with asset raising and distribution from the start.”
Fund managers can choose to join the MontLake UCITS platform or use ML Capital’s management company services (`MLC Management’) and structure dedicated standalone platforms or single funds.
“An increasing number of established fund managers want support, not only in terms of structuring their product at the pre-launch phase but also ongoing support, post-launch. That is something we’ve really focused on over the last couple of years and enjoyed some good momentum. We don’t just set the fund up for them and say, `Good luck’. We support them on an ongoing basis to ensure their product is always at the level expected by investors – whether from a point of view of structure, regulation, passporting or market intelligence,” says Delamare.
ML Capital’s service offering is greater than the sum of its parts. For all the funds it works with, the ongoing objective is to ensure that each of them remains at the top end of their service capability; that applies equally to funds on MontLake UCITS and to standalone funds/platforms. Delamare says that the platform is perfectly suitable for a fund of any size, large or small.
“There is a misconception in the market that a platform offering is made only for emerging, nascent managers. Fund managers who use the platform are those who don’t see the benefit of having their own platform, because they have no real intention of launching a suite of UCITS funds. They get the economies of scale, the support, and the quality of a platform, as well as the benefit of being with other fund managers, which gives them more visibility in the marketplace.
“Those who use our management company to support their ongoing dedicated platforms tend to be managers who have the ambition, or the capacity, to build a family of UCITS funds,” explains Delamare.
In 2017, ML Capital’s overall AUM grew thanks to a number of fund launches, with Delamare confirming that it was an even split between MontLake funds and standalone funds. This has helped ML Capital grow its ManCo services business, attracting some sizeable AUM to complement organic growth on the platform.
ML Capital is an independent European regulated fund structurer that is rightly well known for its MontLake UCITS and MontLake QIAIF platforms, the success of which has seen firm-wide AUM grow to EUR5 billion since its inception in 2009.
However, ML is more than that. With a newly established footprint in Luxembourg that takes the firm beyond its Dublin home base, ML Capital can support fund managers in Europe’s two main fund jurisdictions in a far-reaching capacity that goes beyond being just the operator and investment manager of MontLake. As Cyril Delamare (pictured), CEO of ML Capital, articulates, the firm is a fund solutions provider from an operational and management company perspective.
“When a manager is looking to launch a product, we start with a clean slate,” says Delamare. “ML will tailor the product from a strategy perspective, but also from an investor perspective. It’s all about helping them to structure the product, such that it will be compatible with asset raising and distribution from the start.”
Fund managers can choose to join the MontLake UCITS platform or use ML Capital’s management company services (`MLC Management’) and structure dedicated standalone platforms or single funds.
“An increasing number of established fund managers want support, not only in terms of structuring their product at the pre-launch phase but also ongoing support, post-launch. That is something we’ve really focused on over the last couple of years and enjoyed some good momentum. We don’t just set the fund up for them and say, `Good luck’. We support them on an ongoing basis to ensure their product is always at the level expected by investors – whether from a point of view of structure, regulation, passporting or market intelligence,” says Delamare.
ML Capital’s service offering is greater than the sum of its parts. For all the funds it works with, the ongoing objective is to ensure that each of them remains at the top end of their service capability; that applies equally to funds on MontLake UCITS and to standalone funds/platforms. Delamare says that the platform is perfectly suitable for a fund of any size, large or small.
“There is a misconception in the market that a platform offering is made only for emerging, nascent managers. Fund managers who use the platform are those who don’t see the benefit of having their own platform, because they have no real intention of launching a suite of UCITS funds. They get the economies of scale, the support, and the quality of a platform, as well as the benefit of being with other fund managers, which gives them more visibility in the marketplace.
“Those who use our management company to support their ongoing dedicated platforms tend to be managers who have the ambition, or the capacity, to build a family of UCITS funds,” explains Delamare.
In 2017, ML Capital’s overall AUM grew thanks to a number of fund launches, with Delamare confirming that it was an even split between MontLake funds and standalone funds. This has helped ML Capital grow its ManCo services business, attracting some sizeable AUM to complement organic growth on the platform.
“We offer different services to your typical management company. We call our service, `management company plus’ – this means operating the fund structure on an active basis. Fund managers can delegate everything from an operational perspective to ML Capital, leaving them to focus on managing their strategy and raising assets for the fund. It’s a different model to your traditional management company, which we’ve learned from having operated the MontLake UCITS platform for many years,” concludes Delamare.
