Northern Trust has merged its private equity and hedge fund administration businesses to create a new North America Alternative Fund Services unit.
The new division will provide fund administration, accounting and data solutions to its global hedge funds, private equity managers and managed account clients.
The launch of the new combined group will hope to capitalise on the growing trend of hedge fund manages incorporating private equity and other alternative strategies into their portfolio.
“Investment managers face new operational challenges as they move across asset classes to more complex portfolio construction approaches – incorporating private equity, real estate, infrastructure as well as hedging strategies in the search for yield,” said Pete Cherecwich, president of corporate and institutional services, Northern Trust.
The unit will be led by Peter Sanchez, who has been head of Northern Trust’s hedge fund services business since 2011.
Meanwhile Jeff Boyd, chief operating officer for Northern Trust hedge fund services, will replace Sanchez.
“Bringing private equity and hedge fund services together leverages Northern Trust’s strong footprint in both sectors and enables us to deliver increasingly innovative solutions for this dynamic market,” added Northern Trust’s Sanchez.
“As a strategic operations partner, Alternative Fund Services can provide the technology platform, transparency tools and domain expertise to help asset managers thrive in a changing marketplace.”
The launch of the new unit comes one month after Northern Trust closed its acquisition of the Omnium technology platform from Citadel, bringing its technology and software development team in-house.
The move gave Northern Trust more control over tailoring its technology offering for hedge fund and private equity managers, as well as other institutional investors and family offices.