Universal-Investment has acquired SEB Master KAG. SEB previously bundled its activities in Germany relating to the launching and management of hedge funds.
“This acquisition will strengthen our position as the only complete provider of administration services in Germany,” says Bernd Vorbeck, spokesman of the Universal-Investment management board. With this acquisition, he says, the company is expanding its offerings by an additional asset class after the supervisory authority BaFin gave Universal-Investment the permission to launch and manage hedge funds in September of 2011.
The acquisition increases the fund volume managed by Universal-Investment by EUR110 million and additional clients in the German-speaking countries will follow in the coming weeks. Partners on the SEB Master KAG platform are renowned asset managers such as Loys, Tungsten Capital Management and Volksbank Invest from Austria. Both sides agreed not to disclose the amount of the purchase price. The managing directors of SEB Master KAG are the present managing director Bernd Schusta as well as Bernd Vorbeck. The company will be merged within Universal-Investment over the course of the year.
Fredrik Boheman, chairman of the board of SEB AG, says: “SEB has had business ties with Universal-Investment for many years. SEB and Universal-Investment will continue to cooperate together in the sectors of custodian banks, prime brokerage and brokerage.”
Universal-Investment is already active in alternative investments today, especially via its Luxembourg subsidiary. Nearly two billion EUR is managed in hedge fund strategies there for large institutional investors. Universal-Investment manages an additional two billion EUR on UI-Newcits, the platform for mutual funds with alternative investment strategies.
