PFPC Inc., a member of The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. (NYSE: PNC), and one of the world's leading providers of accounting and administrative services to the hedge fund industry, announced today that its alternative investments group will now employ InvesTier™, an integrated investor accounting and web-based reporting solution in order to streamline complex partnership reporting and allocations, accounting and valuation, performance-based fee calculations, and equalization accounting for hedge funds.
Through a recent licensing agreement, PFPC will integrate InvesTier software with its existing processing platforms in the United States, Dublin and Luxembourg. The licensing agreement with SunGard Investment Management Systems, an operating group of SunGard (NYSE: SDS), allows PFPC to deploy a state-of-the-art web-reporting solution to its clients and address the urgent need for greater transparency and enhanced reporting within the hedge fund industry.
"We believe that by expanding the functionality of PFPC's world-class processing platform with InvesTier's automated hedge fund accounting and reporting capabilities, we will provide increased reporting flexibility, faster turnaround and improved access to reports, not only for hedge fund managers, but also for their clients and sales organizations," said Neal J. Andrews, senior vice president and managing director of PFPC's accounting and administration business. "One of PFPC's specialty areas is servicing registered fund of hedge funds. We found InvesTier's capabilities in this area were compelling, as we evaluated available technology options. We believe that InvesTier is a highly efficient, cost-effective way to automate servicing of complex fund structures and complicated fee arrangements."
For the benefit of its hedge fund clients, the integration of InvesTier will allow PFPC to:
-- Fully automate the calculation of fees for individual investors and
multi-advisor structures.
-- Perform daily allocations and calculate fund NAVs, including all
accrued fee calculations.
-- Automate pricing for fund of funds.
-- Track the capital investments of investors and shareholders, and
facilitate the reporting of sales, placement fees, trailing
commissions, etc.
-- Create financial and tax reports, such as K-1s as well as international
client reports.
-- Tailor multi-currency general ledgers for all required instrument
types.
InvesTier has been designed for flexible interfacing with portfolio management systems and functions on a Microsoft.NET platform with Internet Explorer. It accommodates hedge funds, fund of funds, managed accounts, wrap fee funds as well as offshore unit trusts.
"Traditionally, the complexity of accounting for equitable allocations of realized gains among various investment partners has been an arduous, labor- intensive back office burden," said Carol R. Kaufman, president of the InvesTier operating unit at SunGard Investment Management Systems. "This servicing challenge may have barred many service providers from taking advantage of the enormous growth opportunity presented by investment partnerships, one of the fastest growing segments of the alternative investment industry. InvesTier allows fund accountants and administrators to streamline their processes and improve client services, and it can help to reduce operational costs and compliance risks."
PFPC began providing back-office solutions to the alternative investment industry in the 1980s and today offers a broad array of front and back office services to over 300 hedge and private equity funds structured as limited partnerships and offshore companies, as individual stand-alone funds as well as fund of hedge funds, incorporated in the US and overseas. Its alternative investments group services over 40,000 investor accounts with approximately $18 billion in assets.
InvesTier was launched in September 2001 to address the partnership accounting, fee calculation and equalization accounting needs of domestic and offshore hedge funds and fund of funds. InvesTier was developed by Organizer Systems, Inc., which has served the alternative investments industry for more than 19 years and was acquired by SunGard Investment Management Systems in November 2002.
SunGard is a global leader in integrated IT solutions for financial services. SunGard is also the pioneer and leading provider of information availability services. SunGard serves more than 20,000 clients in over 50 countries, including 47 of the world's 50 largest financial services companies. SunGard (NYSE: SDS) is a member of the S&P 500 and has annual revenues of more than $2 billion. Visit SunGard at www.sungard.com.
PFPC services more than $1.4 trillion in total assets and is the largest full-service mutual fund transfer agent and the second largest provider of mutual fund accounting services. PFPC also provides retirement services, subaccounting, advanced output solutions, custody, securities lending, integrated banking transaction services and alternative investment services. PFPC clients includes some of the world's most successful financial services companies, including brokerage firms, pension and investment managers, insurance companies and banks. PFPC's affiliate, PFPC International Ltd., based in Dublin, Ireland, has served the international funds community since 1993. Contact PFPC by email at information@pfpc.com.
This press release includes forward-looking statements with respect to PFPC's business. Forward-looking statements are often identified by future or conditional verbs, or by variations of such words or by similar expressions, and are subject to numerous assumptions, risks and uncertainties, all of which may change over time. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release, and PNC assumes no duty to update forward-looking statements.
The following factors, among others, could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements or historical performance: customer acceptance of the software product described above; the impact, extent and timing of technological changes; undetected software bugs; possible product liability claims; possible inability to protect proprietary technology; possible infringement claims; and continued increases in competitive pressure in the markets in which this product will be offered.
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SOURCE: PFPC Inc.
CONTACT: Jeanette Harrison-Sullivan of PFPC, +1-302-791-1400 or
+1-508-871-9863, jean.harrison-sullivan@pfpc.com
Web site: http://www.sungard.com/
Web site: http://www.pnc.com/
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