Administrator of the Year

Schroders Private Equity Service (SPES) wins the award for Administrator of the Year. The team, which operates from offices in Guernsey and Bermuda, specialises in providing services to the private equity industry, including fund-of-funds and property funds. It also manages special structures for its clients.

SPES aims to provide its clients with the best private equity management and administration services available and has decades of experience in this area. One of the reasons for the firm’s success is its experienced and stable senior management, who have a total of 70 years working there.

A spokeswoman for SPES says: “We aim to recruit and retain top-quality people, utilise industry-leading systems and emphasise strong internal controls. We have a talented and dedicated team of qualified professionals on our staff. This, together with a hands-on approach, a bespoke service and robust systems, is why we feel we were nominated for this award.”

She says that the addition of this category to the EVCJ Awards is fitting, since more and more private equity funds are choosing to outsource their fund administration, in order to guarantee high quality investor services.

SPES has the institutional support of Schroders group, combined with operational independence. “This enables SPES to develop the business in the best interests of its clients within a strong control environment.”

Schroders plc entered the private equity fund management business in 1983, in response to demands from its institutional investors for access to this asset class. Schroders was initially sponsor, GP, manager and adviser but the advisory teams quickly formed their own autonomous groups. Today, all the original advisory teams own and operate their private equity businesses, of which the highest profile is Permira.

Schroders provides insight into the challenges faced by the fund management industry and a helpful perspective over the particular needs of the private equity management and administration business. Schroders’ broad contact with regulators internationally brings a useful understanding of regulatory changes and their possible impact on the industry. It also provides SPES with strong compliance and disaster recovery infrastructures.

The service gives clients fully integrated 100% web-based systems available 24 hours a day. It also offers customised solutions, so that each client may select the service it needs from an extensive offering.

SPES believes that its experienced private equity team can help clients invest in the key geographic areas and that lessons learned from harsh economic periods and adverse government decisions have been built into the team’s corporate culture and operating procedures. These can help SPES clients avoid expensive or damaging mistakes.