Centaur, a global provider of fund administration services, has been acquired by Waystone, subject to regulatory approval.
Headquartered in Dublin and with offices in the USA, Canada, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Luxembourg and the UK, Centaur employs 220 staff and provides fund administration and fiduciary services to 120 client groups.
Waystone is an institutional provider of governance, risk and compliance services to the asset management industry with 14 offices in Europe, North America and Asia.
Ronan Daly, Centaur co-founder, commented, “As we look at the next phase of our growth, combining with Waystone is a logical next step for our business, bringing a complimentary array of services to our clients and helping us drive our future growth.
“All of our senior team will be staying with the business and we look forward to the next stage of our journey with Waystone.”
In Association with
Centaur founders Ronan Daly, Eric Bertrand and Karen Malone started the venture in 2009 after jumping out of one of the fund sector’s mega players.
Their timing coincided with the financial crash, but the funds industry in Ireland rode out that storm a lot better than most other financial activities.
According to Karen Malone, in its first year Centaur tripled staff numbers to 15 people and the firm secured its first five clients.
Malone cut her teeth with Irish Life Investments and JP Morgan Chase while studying at Griffith College and Dublin Business School to secure an accountancy qualification.
Then it was off to Bermuda in 1997 to work with Hemisphere Management, which did the type of work that Centaur does today.
Daly, an English solicitor, and Bertrand, a Canadian accountant, also worked with Hemisphere, which was a relatively small player at the time and subsequently enjoyed substantial growth, with a focus on hedge fund requirements.
In 1998, Hemisphere sent Malone back to Ireland to establish the company in Dublin, and she was joined two years later by Daly.
“It was a really explosive time for hedge funds and alternative funds across Europe,” Malone recalled. “Eric, Ronan and I had our respective roles within that organisation during a period of fast growth. Bisys bought the business in 2002 and we continued with our roles.”
The parcel was then passed to US giant Citi in 2007, and that deal prompted Malone and her colleagues to think about doing their own thing.
Centaur provides fund administration services to client groups ranging from large institutions managing multiple billions in multiple fund products, to boutique firms managing single strategies.
Fund administrators provide back office processes that ensure the investment funds run smoothly, and they take care of compliance and regulatory requirements.
“We pretty much take away all the burden of the administration work and provide the investors with confidence that there is somebody independent of the fund manager looking out for their interests,” Malone explained in a Business Plus interview.
“Unlike some of our competitors, we don’t outsource or offshore our work and we don’t unduly functionalise our work. Our client teams really understand what our clients’ needs are, and they are connected to the client.
“Our other differentiator is accountability. You might think this is a no-brainer, but in our industry many administrators contract out of this responsibility.”
Centaur took on private equity investment in January 2020 from US firm FTV Capital, arranged by Key Capital in Dublin.
In October 2020, FTV took 100% control of Centaur FS Ltd, the UK company that owns Centaur.
Centaur was advised on the Waystone transaction by Macquarie and Willkie Farr & Gallagher and the Centaur management team was advised by Key Capital and law firm McCann Fitzgerald. Waystone took legal counsel from Matheson.
Photo: Karen Malone with Centaur FS co-founders Ronan Daly (left) and Eric Bertrand. (Pic: Sean Moore)
