Paperjam Advertorial Interview SGG
What makes the difference in servicing funds? “Great people are needed to deliver services and drive processes. Dealing with alternative assets is a people business and we have hired staff who make a real difference. Each service leader (depositary, AIFM, consolidation, accounting, etc.) has at least fifteen years experience, giving a profound technical knowledge of servicing and of the relevant asset class.
“ We don’t have complex hierarchies.” What are the advantages of the SGG model? “We meet shorter deadlines, we run a cost-efficient operation, and we provide a one stop shop solution. For example, we limit manual interventions to a strict minimum, we provide daily accounting and audit trails so when audit questions arise we rarely have to bother clients. Our staff are trained continuously to keep abreast of new legal requirements and to spot new opportunities of interest to new and existing clients. How do you ensure agility? “We don’t have complex hierarchies. Because we have excellent people we trust our leaders to take the right decisions. This enables us to keep our structures light and flexible and facilitates intrapreneurship. When did SGG move into the fund business? “It has been an evolution. There was a real step up after 2004 with the advent of the SICAR, a vehicle for investments in risk capital, and the SIF [specialised investment fund] vehicle in 2007. New possibilities opened with the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive [AIFMD] in 2013. After many years working in fund and consulting businesses I was convinced that the alternative fund sector was ripe for change. Other colleagues agreed, but some companies were unable to react, for a variety of reasons: a lack of local decision making power; insufficient capital; unwillingness of managers to depart from agreed business plans; this business being considered to be a marginal activity; no willingness to change legacy systems and competences; restricted hiring budgets; a lack of knowledge of the fund administration business and so on. It was clear to me from the start that SGG was a ‘sleeping beauty’ because it had none of these drawbacks. I presented my ideas to the group CEO, group COO and the shareholders, they had similar thoughts and were
enthusiastic. So I joined the firm in 2013 with the brief to take its fund business to the next level. It has been a pleasure to work with the teams and executives to build and promote these full fund services solutions that we knew clients would find useful. How big are your fund operations now in Luxembourg? “We have 125 people in the real estate and the private equity divisions in Luxembourg including 30 for regulated structures. We administer 80 regulated funds. In terms of revenues we have grown by 40% per year since 2007. On the depositary side we have €4.5bn assets (invested, not committed) despite only having started a year ago. And what about the future? “There are currently 550 people internationally in the SGG group and we expect this to double over the next five years. We are looking to expand our geographical and service coverage further beyond our existing operations. However, we will not grow for the sake of it. For us client satisfaction is the most important factor, a metric we measure and by which we judge ourselves. SGG is special because we are agile, highly responsive and client focused, attributes we will not change.” ◄
Front row, from left to right: Stéphane Haot, Maria Chiapolino, Arnaud Bon, Saliha Boulhais. Second row: Francis Parisis, Stephan Schilken, Thomas Blaise, Habiba Boughaba, Christoph Kossmann, Thierry Jacob. Other senior team members not in the picture are Anja Grenner, Luca Gallinelli and Pamela Valasuo. ▼
Unique services, unique approach SGG’s fund services division operates like a driven, start-up business based within a firm with a long track record of client service excellence. Teams offer private equity and real estate funds the right mixture of services drawn from a uniquely wide offering. Traditionally strong in corporate administration, accounting & consolidation services, SGG has added fund-related functionalities over the years. For example, corporate management services such as offices, payroll management and domiciliation, international SPV accounting, fund accounting, transfer agency and depositary services, as well as third party AIFM services. Teams are led by professionals with long track records of performance and the desire to solve problems in an innovative fashion. This results in motivated, agile teams able to offer quick and accurate services at attractive prices.
40%
Income in the fund division has risen by an average of 40% per year since 2007. The depositary activity now has €4.5bn of invested assets, just one year after the firm started offering these services, and various clients have already agreed to trust SGG for their third party AIFM services needs.
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