Acolin Fund Services AG (Zurich) and Hugo Fund Services SA (Geneva) have formed a joint venture aimed at enhancing the two companies’ positioning within the global fund distribution market.
A new entity has been formed, Acolin Holding AG, under which both companies, and all other Acolin Group companies, will be consolidated. The new structure has been approved by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA).
Daniel Häfele (pictured), founder and CEO of Acolin Fund Services AG, will serve as CEO and Chairman of Acolin holding’s Board of Directors. Yves Hervieu-Causse, founder and CEO of Hugo Fund Services SA will serve as Executive Vice-Chairman of the Board of the new holding company.
A new Business Development department will be managed by Anne-Cathrine Frogg, co-founder of Hugo Fund Services. She will join the Group Executive Committee of Acolin at the holding level, along with Viktor Fischer, Deputy CEO, and Petra Arndts, Head of Clients Relationship Management.
The new group will become one of the largest independent providers of fund representation services in Switzerland, working with over 1300 funds. Moreover, the new Group will be servicing over 500 asset managers worldwide, enabling these asset managers to gain access to proven and professional global fund distribution services throughout the European Union and Switzerland.
With this current market positioning, the new group’s objective is to become the independent market leader in cross-border distribution infrastructure management services.
Acolin is a specialist service provider in the distribution of mutual funds (UCITS), founded in 2006, and has over the past decade developed an innovative service enabling asset managers to optimally access investors by delegating parts of the required regulatory and operational distribution infrastructure management. Häfele describes the joint venture as “the perfect symbiosis, as Acolin can substantially strengthen and expand its competitive position in the market for services regarding distribution of alter- native investment funds.”
Hugo Fund Services is an established Swiss Representative, founded by Yves Hervieu-Causse and Anne- Cathrine Frogg, servicing mainly private equity, real estate and hedge funds distributed to qualified investors in Switzerland. As Yves Hervieu-Causse points out, “the positive synergies, particularly the merging of our competencies and experiences in different fields of fund distribution, lead to a competitive advantage for asset managers globally”.
