As asset managers continue broaden their investment ranges and allocate more to alternative and esoteric asset classes, Geneva by SS&C Advent has been ready and present to meet the demand these developments are creating.
Will Broadway (pictured), Sales Manager for the European alternatives market at SS&C Advent says: “Our team should be proud of their efforts being recognised with this award. Particularly for the development of Geneva over the last 18 months that have made it the system of choice for fund managers running private credit and debt strategies, an area of the market we have seen balloon.
We responded quickly to the changes in our clients’ portfolios, we saw a huge rise in the number of managers investing in bank debt, term loans and revolvers. Thanks to our teams efforts we ensured Geneva was at the forefront of innovation in credit, as a result there are just over 100 funds today managing bank loans with Geneva.”
2018 was a record year for the firm, both in terms of revenue and client numbers. Last year saw SS&C Advent continue to drive innovation by responding to client demand, launching fully cloud delivered products and flexible outsourced services to augment existing products and improve their client’s efficiency.
Asset managers are under pressure to lower fees while asset allocators are finding it ever more difficult to chase the classic target of inflation plus 6 per cent. Broadway explains that as a result, both managers and asset owners are looking further afield to explore how they can use their appetite for illiquidity in interesting ways.
“This is driving asset managers to offer far broader asset class exposure. So, traditional institutional asset managers who were historically focused on equity and fixed income are now looking for systems which handle derivatives and also run hedge fund style strategies as well as private equity, credit and debt.” This plays well into Geneva by SS&C Advent’s capabilities as the products supports all of these requirements in one system as well as complementing it with a suite of complementary products and services to meet the ever changing needs of the market.
The firm is able to service almost every single part of the buy side – from retail advisory shops to asset managers and across the globe as well as the more specialised alternative managers in private equity and hedge funds. SS&C Advent can also provide products suited to prime brokers and fund administrators. Broadway says: “Advent provides software to all of these players and benefits from diversification. More importantly, it can take advantage of the ability to share that expertise and perspective across all of those business lines.”
Winning the award, according to Broadway is recognition for the team’s efforts across the entire business unit. “It doesn’t matter what team they’re in, what they do or where they are – every single person contributes in some way or another towards an award like this,” he says, “it’s great that clients and peers appreciate our hard work and it goes a long way to bring validation to all of us.”
“Also, strategically it shows we’re moving in the right direction and is a confirmation that we’ve been focused on the right targets. We don’t have a strategic goal to win a certain number of awards but if our efforts to provide products across all sub sets of the buyside result in awards being won it means we must be doing something right somewhere,” Broadway concludes.
