IBS Journal May 2015
Advent Software’s takeover by SS&C: customer view
Maples Fund Services is a strong supporter of Advent Software and a user of its Geneva software since 2009. What does Maples Fund Services’ global head and CIO, Tyler Kim, think of the recent takeover of the vendor by rival software firm SS&C, and what might the impact on the relationship be?
‘We are looking at the SS&C acquisition of Advent Software cautiously,’ says Tyler Kim, global head and CIO of Maples Fund Ser- vices, a global fund services provider with $50 billion assets under administration. Advent was acquired by rival SS&C earlier this year for $2.7 billion (making it SS&C’s largest acquisition to date). Maples Fund Services has been using
Advent’s portfolio management system for alternative investors, Geneva, for five years, and has also carried out a number of collaborative development projects with the vendor. ‘I had a chat with Pete Hess [Advent’s CEO] and received a lot of posi- tive reassurances. But of course with SS&C owning GlobeOp Financial Services [also
a fund administrator, acquired by SS&C in 2012 for nearly $900 million] you start to wonder,’ he muses. ‘But at the end of the day, the price SS&C paid for Advent is three times higher than what it paid for GlobeOp. It wouldn’t want to jeopardise that.’
The market was told that Advent will
continue to operate as a completely sep- arate business and the management has been reiterating the vendor’s commitment to its fund administration clients, Kim says. In the longer term, Maples Fund Services anticipates ‘a door opened’ to talk to Nor- mand Boulanger, SS&C’s president and COO (Advent’s Hess will report to him). ‘We have historically provided guidance
to Advent on where its products should go, and are a great supporter of the ven- dor,’ Kim comments. ‘If it works out as we all hope with this acquisition – and Advent continues to operate as a separate busi- ness unit, with its main focus on the soft- ware rather than on the admin business – I am happy to continue our relationship, because I think it has been working well for us both.’ Kim emphasises that ‘Advent’s Geneva
is important to us, but as a commodity, a utility. It is not what differentiates us in the market. It is a software package that we are happy to use as long as it is on a par with other admin solutions in the market.’ The true differentiators are Maples Fund Ser-
‘There are no solutions from SS&C
that I am interested in at the moment.’ Tyler Kim, Maples Fund Services
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© IBS Intelligence 2015
www.ibsintelligence.com
point of view
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