Vittoria and Partners was formed by a team which had worked together for many years at a larger hosting firm and wanted to carry on working together after leaving that firm. Joe Vittoria (pictured), CEO, Vittoria and Partners, expands on the benefits gained by the team members knowing each other well while also having in-depth understanding of the industry.Â
PARTNER CONTENT
By Joe Vittoria
CEO, Vittoria and Partners
Vittoria and Partners was formed by a team which had worked together for many years at a larger hosting firm and wanted to carry on working together after leaving that firm. Joe Vittoria, CEO, Vittoria and Partners, expands on the benefits gained by the team members knowing each other well while also having in-depth understanding of the industry.
The first advantage we gained from the way we build the business was that we could hit the ground running, and indeed, we were honoured to win the Hedgeweek Award for Best Regulatory Hosting Firm for 2023. Another benefit is having a greater understanding of what makes a firm a good place to work. Shedding the shackles of PE ownership allowed us to focus on what we wanted to achieve, and it is relatively simple, to be the best and to enjoy our work. These two goals are linked since they feed off each other. We ensured that everyone in the firm was aligned, by giving everyone significant equity participation.
Our objective is to stick to regulatory hosting, and not to try to expand into other areas. We want to be known for doing one thing and doing it well, and we believe we can do that thing in more places than just the UK. So we intend to open in a variety of places and are investigating the following locations: Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Zurich, Singapore, Sydney, Paris, Stockholm, NY, and Miami.
We are best suited to work with clients who want to operate at an institutional level, but we will happily work with most start-ups. The nature of our oversight program may feel like overkill to some smaller firms, but we believe that this is the best way to attract institutional allocators.
There are two main service offerings in the regulatory hosting industry: one being the advisor/arranger activity, usually provided through an appointed representative relationship; and the other being investment management, which is provided through a secondment arrangement. While we provide both, it is clear that we can more clearly differentiate our offering in the investment management side, and it is in this area where we see much of our future growth.
The FCA’s recent attention on this industry has been well documented and is partially due to Greensill, but also because the FCA found many deficiencies as it looked more closely at it. It is clear that the FCA has raised the bar, and many former participants have either scaled back or left the industry. We see this as a great opportunity since we believe that when a firm can evidence that it is performing its duties properly, the FCA will not be unsupportive. This industry can be a tremendous asset for the UK, as it clearly helps foreign firms to establish an initial presence in London, and this will continue to be a post-Brexit focus.
We believe that the industry will continue and indeed thrive, but with fewer, higher-quality players. Our focus continues to be to build a governance structure which can be trusted and valued by institutional investors while providing a pragmatic and superior service to our clients.
Joe Vittoria, CEO, Vittoria and Partners – Joe was most recently the CEO and Founder of the Mirabella Group. Mirabella started hosting managers in 2001 and was one of the earliest participants in the regulatory hosting industry. In 2009 he sold the business and withdrew from the CEO role but returned to it in 2012. Over the next eight years he developed Mirabella into the recognized leader and largest (by AuM) regulatory hosting provider in the UK. As its CEO, and compliance officer he was responsible for ensuring regulatory compliance of Mirabella, and during his tenure at Mirabella, the firm fully and successfully complied with all of its regulatory obligations, which included the FCA (UK), MFSA (Malta), and the NFA/CFTC (USA). Mirabella was responsible for the regulated activity of over 250+ people working in its 70+ clients, which in total amounted to over $19bn in assets under management. The investment strategies it hosted ranged from Private Equity and Real Estate to complex credit and derivative processes, with the majority in long/short equity. Mirabella became known as the firm most trusted and used by institutional allocators and managers in this industry. Joe parted ways with Mirabella in Aug 2020, due to a strategic change in direction by the firm’s owners. In the months following his departure over half the firm’s staff resigned, and many joined Joe at V&P, with more to follow. Apart from his experience at Mirabella, Joe has acted as COO to other investment management firms, which included quant, debt and credit strategies. Before starting in the alternative investment management industry in 1998, Joe worked at Salomon Brothers which he joined in 1985, after graduating from Yale with a BA in Economics.
