Northern Trust has gained a new asset servicing mandate by Modular Asset Management in Singapore, a specialist Asian macro alternative investment management company licenced by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
As part of the deal, Northern Trust will provide a range of collateral management, custody, fund administration, middle-office outsourcing, and risk compliance monitoring services to Modular鈥檚 newly-launched Cayman Islands-domiciled Modular Asian Macro Fund and related entities.
Modular, which spun out of a large US hedge fund manager in January, is one of Asia鈥檚 largest hedge fund launches in recent years, according to Northern Trust.
The US bank says that the track record of Modular鈥檚 co-founder, Jimmy Lim, has attracted commitments from global institutional investors, which will bring the firm鈥檚 assets under management close to US$1 billion.
Previously, Lim ran similar specialist Asian mandates at Millennium, BlueCrest and J.P. Morgan.
Modular Asia Macro Master Fund is a specialist, pure-play Asia macro strategy that aims to provide stable uncorrelated absolute returns by investing in liquid foreign exchange and rates markets primarily within the Asia-Pacific region.
Iain Carey, head of hedge fund services, Asia-Pacific at Northern Trust, says: 鈥淲e鈥檙e seeing an increasing trend to middle-office outsourcing in the hedge fund arena, across Asia. Northern Trust鈥檚 experience and expertise in dealing with sophisticated funds, coupled with our advanced technology platform and Singapore-based fund services capabilities ensure we鈥檙e well-placed to help Modular achieve its overall objectives.鈥�
Matthew Cannon, another co-founder of Modular, adds: 鈥淲e looked at a range of service providers and were impressed by Northern Trust鈥檚 technology platform and integrated suite of services which securely support our complex investment strategies, investor liaison and operational needs.鈥�
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