A global Real Estate and Infrastructure Fund Manager with $12bn AUM across both private and listed funds. With offices in London, Hong Kong, Sydney, Seoul and Mexico City, the firm manages 200+ real estate and infrastructure projects across 30 countries.
What was the initial problem?
Our client was looking for an expert third-party to work with them to design a scalable fund management platform to support significant expected AUM growth over the next few years. They were considering outsourcing certain finance functions, but were unsure of which should be outsourced and which should remain in-house. On top of the ever increasing transparency expectations from investors and regulators, there were a number of internal drivers for this project:
- Any new funds were likely to be larger and more complex than the current funds
- There was desire within the business to improve the quality, efficiency and speed of reporting to investors
- The business needed to achieve ‘one source of truth’ across the Real Estate and Infrastructure asset classes and the business as a whole
What action did we take?
Holland Mountain conducted a tailored Operational Review, encompassing Central Finance, Real Estate, Infrastructure and Investor Relations, with the objective of establishing which areas of the business should be outsourced and which would be better kept in-house. We conducted discovery workshops with representatives from each of the business areas in scope, asking what was working well and what was not working well, as well as identifying any wish list items for the target future state.
For each functional area, we produced detailed findings and recommendations, including a list of the pros and cons of outsourcing, along with our recommendation for whether they should do so. We were also able to provide a list of tactical ‘quick wins’ for each functional area, unrelated to the outsourcing decision.
Having agreed our recommendations with senior stakeholders, we worked with them to design a Target Operating Model, showing how teams, systems, processes and outputs would interact with each other in the target future state. This included a breakdown of the recommended people, processes and technology that would be required to support the functions to remain in-house.
Once the Target Operating Model was agreed, we designed the Operational Roadmap, showing how the business could most efficiently move from the current state to the Target Future State. Finally, we provided a business case to support them embarking on the initial stage of the Operational Roadmap.
What were the benefits?
Our deliverable was well received by the business partners. The business case was approved and, supported by our scope and requirements work, the client went on to select a preferred fund administrator. After a 12-month onboarding project, the business now runs significantly more efficiently. Over the past couple of years, the firm has successfully launched several new funds on the new operational platform.
Holland Mountain’s Data Services team (HMDS) is currently supporting the business to further optimise the operating model, providing fund administrator oversight capability through our Analytics Data Platform.