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Q&A HIGHVERN Philip Dempsey, country head at Highvern Ireland, discusses the launch of the firm’s boutique offering in the leading edge fund jurisdiction Ireland. By Simon Thompson
When fund administration firms expand into jurisdictions, they’ll make a senior appointment to lead, and then add and build the team incrementally from there. Highvern has hired three senior Irish industry leaders, that is quite a statement, what is the intent behind the move?
In setting up our Dublin-based Irish business, along with two other senior, experienced directors in Adrian Bailie and Emma Keane, we believe that we are making a strong, positive statement of intent to the market. With this approach, we are clearly demonstrating that we have high expectations and confidence in the success of our Irish business. In making this upfront investment, we are establishing a business in Ireland with the right foundations in place to deliver high quality client service and have the ability to build scale in the future. We want to deliver on this to key market participants including clients, the regulator, and industry peers and partners, and be known throughout the industry as the firm that has a proven track record of creating sustainable and scalable operations, irrespective of the jurisdictions that we operate in.
To what extent is this a differentiator for Highvern, as it enters the Irish market?
We have a director-led business model, and focus on growing those senior relationships with our clients. We draw upon our collective experience in working with some of the largest institutional asset managers globally – we know what clients demand from a successful partnership. Highvern prides itself on delivering a high-touch client value proposition. The client knows that their business is in the best possible hands, which is evidenced in the growth of our existing client relationships, and in the ever-increasing new client relationships that we are building. Investment in our people and technology is a key pillar of our successful business strategy. By having the best people at Highvern, we can tangibly support the message we
operating model for managers looking to establish here in Ireland For example, the updated Investment Limited Partnership (ILP) came into force last year, as well as the Central Bank of Ireland authorising the first Real Assets Specialised Depositary, which is responsible for asset verification and cash flow monitoring of funds. Ireland is also attractive as a fund domicile because of the over 70 double taxation treaties. In addition, Ireland is now the only English-speaking member of the EU, it is a common law jurisdiction, and provides unrestricted access to the EU 27 member states. Simultaneously, Ireland still enjoys the benefits of the Common Travel Area (CTA) with the UK. Highvern sees Ireland as a jurisdiction of growth over the short, medium, and long term. We are not alone when you see the number of international service providers looking to launch here too.
convey at the outset. This engenders confidence and trust at all levels of their organisation. This is a key differentiator in a crowded marketplace – words are supported by actions. We work in lockstep with our clients so they can get the best out of their experience here in Ireland. As an independent, owner-manged business with over 50 years of proven track record, we have always kept the focus on manageable and sustainable growth. Unlike many of our industry peers who are either private equity backed, or publicly listed, our focus has and will continue to be on our clients. We see the recent consolidation of service providers as an opportunity for us. In these situations, the quality of client service delivery generally suffers. As a result, clients are more open to exploring new partnership opportunities. At Highvern, we know that by getting our client delivery and relationship management right, commercial growth will follow.
ILP and Brexit aside, how has Ireland grown to be such an industry favoured location for domicling PE, debt, capital markets, real estate, and infrastructure funds, and the alternative asset class more generally?
Highvern has been operating out of Jersey for more than 50 years, why is the firm expanding into Ireland and why now?
Ireland has made a number of significant positive changes to the legislative and regulatory environment, particularly in the private funds space. This will help to create an efficient and optimised
As a direct follow on from Brexit, a significant number of large international institutional asset managers have decided to relocate their businesses and their funds to
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Ireland given its strategic positioning within the EU. In choosing Ireland, it provides them with a high degree of certainty in an internationally recognised and sophisticated European centre, which will provide the ideal platform to grow their business. In addition to the aforementioned benefits, we have seen a large influx of talent to Ireland post Brexit. This has taken the form of both Irish diasporas returning home after enjoying successful careers overseas, and new professionals relocating here to take advantage of a multitude of new and exciting career opportunities here. The growth of the industry in the country, particularly over the past five to 10 years, has run in parallel with Ireland’s continued success internationally. The jurisdiction is renowned for its highly developed ecosystem including having a robust and well-developed regulatory regime and legal framework.
How is Highvern positioned to offer PE stakeholders the best of the Ireland jurisdiction?
Highvern is particularly well placed as a specialist firm across alternative asset classes in the private funds and private wealth services in a number of jurisdictions. Given that we are a specialist, independent, ownermanaged business, we have the ability to be agile and proactive from a client service perspective. Our 50-plus year history, including our long association with Coutts, one of Britain’s most internationally renowned private banks, has provided us with the right foundations for today’s business. Since the management buyout in 2016, all of our business lines have experienced year on year commercial growth above industry averages. This in turn has allowed us to expand our footprint, with Ireland being one of our newest jurisdictions. We very much see Ireland as playing a very significant role in our European funds business. Valuing client relationships, in tandem with investment in people and technology will continue a key focus. This will allow us to continue with expanding our service capabilities across new products and jurisdictions. ●