Mourant arm sold to US finance firm
Wednesday 2nd December 2009, 3:00PM GMT.
Mourant's office in Grenville Street
THE financial services arm of Mourant, one of the Island’s leading finance businesses, has been sold to a major US firm.
It was announced yesterday that a deal had been struck for Boston-based State Street Corporation – which already has a presence in the Island – to buy Mourant International Finance Administration for an undisclosed sum.
MIFA has 650 employees and US$170 billion in assets under administration. It is understood that staff have been told that their jobs are safe.
The business has its headquarters in Grenville Street, but also has offices in London, Dublin, Luxembourg, Singapore, Hong Kong, New York and Guernsey.
The deal is understood not to include Mourant du Feu and Jeune, which will continue to operate as a law firm.
There are still regulatory issues to complete and the transaction is not expected to be finalised until early next year.
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“It is understood that staff have been told that their jobs are safe.”
I would take that statement with a fairly large pinch of salt given the present climate
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State Street. If my experience of their Luxembourg operations is anything to go by, MIFA will become more of a sausage factory than it already is.
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Is the “undisclosed sum” positive or negative ? According to the purchaser’s press release, the acquisition is expected to be “slightly accretive, excluding one time costs”, subject to a barrage of provisos, including “…regulatory approvals and other closing conditions” and will only be definitive at the close of the 1st. quarter of 2010. The business is principally “private equity, real estate and hedge funds”. It escapes nobody that the naming of Michel Barnier as Commissioner for the Single Market spells the probable mass exodus of funds from the City (see today’s Times) and a considerable “knock-on” effect for Jersey. Alistair Darling’s comments are painfully clear. Jobs are safe, failing the good old Jersey “Ah, but…”
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I am surprised by the number of doom-mongerers there still are out there. Actually the hedge fund business is starting to grow again.
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In reply to Philip Landick – You are seriously mistaken in pretty much most of your comments. Most small private deals are for undisclosed sums, its a private transaction why would they tell you. M&A deals are always subject to regulator review. Accretive deals…ummhhh, why would you do a dilutive deal!? Last time i checked Jersey is not part of the EU and not subject to the EU banking regulator. Michael Barnier is charge of internal markets, including financial markets. Any squeeze out of the City from this Sarkozy stoug will most likely be to errrr….Jersey, Geneva, Zurich etc. Other wise why would a US trust and admin company pay up for a Jersey based buisness.
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You’d expect people in jersey to know what they were talking about when it came to finance…
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Simon and Jerseyboy you’re spot on. Despite what the doom-monger posters say, Jersey’s fund business is thriving, which might surprise some people. Which is probably why State Street wanted to buy it – after all, they’re not stupid. Why can’t people celebrate some good news for a change instead of the usual ill-informed cynicism?
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