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Apex Fund Services
Apex Fund Services administers US$21.6 billion in committed
capital on behalf of private equity funds, funds of private equity
funds and other fund managers pursuing private equity fund
strategies. Of these, the bulk are on the smaller side with under
$100 million in committed capital. European clients dominate
the response sample, followed by North America and Asia
(ex-Japan). Apex services both offshore and onshore PE funds.
Over the past two years Apex has completed a roll-out of spe-
cialist PE centres across the globe to provide a “follow the sun”
service solution to GPs who run global operations.
The firm provides services to institutional investors as well
as fund managers. “LPs are increasingly demanding bespoke
SCORES BY CATEGORY
reporting and transparency,” it says. “As GPs gear up to pro-
vide LPs with reports which go well beyond the traditional
standardised statements, Apex’s GP services have also evolved
beyond catering to simply the GP’s internal reporting needs to
support these enhanced LP reporting obligations as well.”
In the survey itself, Apex scores for all categories are solid.
Capital Drawdowns outperforms the market average. The weak-
est area for Apex is Technology. At 5.40, it is 0.48 basis points
behind the next highest category score.
One client describes Apex as, “very responsive, available
at all times and solution oriented; top management are very
approachable,” adding that, “Overall we have been extremely
happy with Apex (having worked with quite a few others).”
On the client wish-list for improvement are a streamlining of
the bank opening process for funds and multilingual reporting.
Category Average
Score North
America Europe Asia Rest of
World Client Service and Relationship
Management 6.15 n/a 6.37 6.22 5.97 Value Delivered 6.08 n/a 6.50 6.11 5.79 Fund Establishing and Structuring 6.19 n/a 6.67 6.00 6.43 Capital Drawdowns 6.56 n/a 6.45 6.51 6.67 Investment Execution 6.22 n/a 7.00 5.79 7.00 Accounting and Reporting To
Limited Partners/Investors 5.89 n/a 6.50 6.09 5.45 Accounting and Reporting To
General Partners 5.90 n/a 6.25 6.19 4.65 Compliance Support 5.88 n/a 6.00 6.27 4.50 ■
Reporting 6.13 n/a 6.00 6.18 6.00 ■
Regulatory Reporting 6.15 n/a 6.57 6.48 5.36 ■
Technology 5.40 n/a 6.29 5.37 5.11
RESPONDENTS BY REGION (WEIGHTED)
5
RESPONDENTS BY SIZE (WEIGHTED)
10
32.5
27.5
27.5
52.5
■
North America
Europe
Asia
RoW
45
5
10
52.5
32.5
■
■
■
■
■
Very Large
Large
Medium
Small
Very Small
27.5
45
0
27.5
0
RATINGS BY PERCENTAGE OF RESPONSES
Category Excellent
(7) Very good
(6) Good
(5) Satisfactory
(4) Weak
(3) Very weak
(2) Unacceptably
weak (1) Not
answered
Client Service and Relationship Management 34.8 36.5 15.7 5.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 7.8
Value Delivered 36.2 23.2 7.2 10.1 4.3 0.0 0.0 18.8
Fund Establishing and Structuring 21.7 26.1 4.3 8.7 0.0 0.0 0.0 39.1
Capital Drawdowns 31.9 21.7 1.4 2.9 0.0 0.0 0.0 42.0
Investment Execution 11.6 10.1 10.1 2.9 0.0 0.0 0.0 65.2
Accounting and Reporting To Limited Partners/Investors 16.5 21.7 12.2 3.5 3.5 0.0 0.9 41.7
Accounting and Reporting To General Partners 13.9 23.5 8.7 2.6 5.2 0.0 0.0 46.1
Compliance Support 17.4 19.6 8.7 4.3 6.5 0.0 0.0 43.5
Reporting 23.9 28.3 6.5 8.7 0.0 0.0 0.0 32.6
Regulatory Reporting 21.7 26.1 6.5 4.3 0.0 0.0 0.0 41.3
Technology 7.2 18.8 14.5 10.1 4.3 0.0 0.0 44.9
21.5 23.2 8.7 5.8 2.2 0.0 0.1 38.5
The Private Equity Issue 2017
globalcustodian.com
33