Invast Global aims to provide clients with flexibility and focus. This year’s best specialist market prime broker aims to tailor its offering to the needs of its clients. According to chief executive officer Gavin White it’s this willingness to bend for the client that the large Tier One primes can’t compete with in the current environment.
“We also have a very sharp focus on technology. We aspire to be at the forefront in the industry and we have invested in talent and expertise. Our development teams in Tokyo and Sydney will continue to keep us innovative and help us provide our clients with an offering that surprises them,” White (pictured) explains.
This element of surprise is unique to Invast, says White, “It’s indicative of a culture of fun and innovation that pervades our firm. It’s very different to the traditional investment bank culture.” The firm provides a complete global market prime brokerage offering aimed at serving the needs of the sub 1bn AUM managers.
Throughout 2018, White says the most significant trend in the industry was the continued withdrawal of the global banks from the small/medium prime services space. He expects this to gather pace in the next few years, as bank-focused regulatory reforms such as Basel 3 and MiFID extend their influence over bank activities.
2019 will be a year of expansion for Invast Global. The business is growing strongly according to all key metrics; client accounts, client deposits, revenue per client have all continued to accelerate over 2018. “As Tier One banks continue to withdraw from many aspects of investment Banking, we expect demand for our services will remain strong,” says White. The goal for the coming year is to expand into this global opportunity.
Invast opened a Hong Kong office in January this year, which is expected to grow quickly through the year. White says: “Through the rest of 2019, we plan to open offices in Singapore, Shanghai and London.”
Currently, the firm’s investment banking team in Sydney is supported by a dynamic 40-strong IT Development team based in Tokyo. “They come up with the most amazing stuff and have some very interesting products due to launch early this year – mainly relating to our client’s middle and back office needs.
“Our development team in Tokyo is constantly building little tweaks to our client portal, utilising the benefits of cloud technology to give our clients deeper-diving, more accessible services, reports and analysis, including mobile capabilities,” says White.
In terms of particular sectors expediting growth, White says the synthetic equities business has been the biggest contributor as of late. He explains: “Accommodative leverage on individual stocks and access to borrow across all global exchanges are some of the reasons we are attracting the attention of emerging managers, many of whom don’t get the attention they deserve at the Tier One prime brokers.”
“The Hedgeweek Global Awards are voted for by readers and senior industry participants and as such there is no more respected award in the industry. So, it is a great honour for the team to win such significant recognition against much larger, well-entrenched competition.
It is a long way to travel from Sydney to London to accept the award, but it is well worth the journey,” White concludes. n
