Adrian Durham and FNZ announced their third acquisition since the beginning of the year: after the German Fondsdepot Bank and the American YieldX, the Luxembourg-based Ifsam falls into their lap. Photo: Douglas Fry/FNZ

Adrian Durham and FNZ announced their third acquisition since the beginning of the year: after the German Fondsdepot Bank and the American YieldX, the Luxembourg-based Ifsam falls into their lap. Photo: Douglas Fry/FNZ

FNZ, which was founded in New Zealand by former Credit Suisse employees, specialises in wealth management and continues to make acquisitions at a furious pace. On Wednesday 8 February, it announced that it had acquired the Luxembourg platform Ifsam for an undisclosed sum.

In five years, FNZ has grown from $212bn to more than $1.5trn in assets under administration and partners with more than 650 major financial institutions and over 8,000 asset management companies in 21 countries. These include Abrdn, Allianz, Aviva, Barclays, BNP Paribas Cardif, BNZ, Colonial First State, Generali, Jarden, Lloyds, Momentum, NAB, Quilter, Swedbank, UOB and Vanguard. The global platform provider in the wealth management sector also has over 80m customers and 6,000 employees.

Most importantly, last February it received a $1.4bn investment from the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments) and Motive Partners--a record in wealth management that values it at over $20bn. This should enable it to further accelerate its external growth strategy.

Luxembourg, a centre of excellence

A new chapter was opened on 8 February with the announcement of the acquisition of Luxembourg-based  International Fund Services & Asset Management (Ifsam) for an undisclosed amount. Ifsam, which is supervised by the Luxembourg financial regulator CSSF, achieved a turnover of €42.3m and a profit of €2.14m in 2021, with 40 employees.

“Together with FNZ, we will accelerate our growth trajectory and broaden the suite of capabilities to better serve our existing and new clients with additional technology and service solutions,” commented the managing partner of the Luxembourg entity, Luc Duarte. “Our colleagues and associates at Ifsam will enjoy the opportunities in delivering on this ambition and vision, which offers even more exciting long-term career opportunities to lead and impact the global wealth management industry.”

Third purchase in 2023

According to the statement, FNZ intends to make its acquisition its “centre of excellence for fund distribution and custody services in Europe.”

In November, the company led by Adrian Durham completed the purchase of Diamos’ Swiss operations. Since the beginning of the year, it has acquired Fondsdepot Bank, one of Germany’s leading independent trading and custody platforms, three years after taking over another German player, Ebase. And three days later, it announced that it had won over the US provider of bond portfolio management technology, optimisation services and direct indexing tools, YieldX, opening a valuable door in the US.

This story was first published in French on . It has been translated and edited for Delano.

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