Following the establishment of its Asia Pacific operation in 2001, Danish-listed financial technology vendor SimCorp has signed its first client in the region for its fund management solution.
Long Investment Management, a Hong Kong-based investment advisory group specialising in arbitrage strategies in Asia, will implement TMS2000 in the first quarter this year as a fully integrated solution encompassing both index portfolios and funds management.
According to Long Investment Management, key factors in the selection of SimCorp's offering were its pricing capabilities (theoretical and market), risk management facilities such as historical and Monte Carlo Value-at-Risk analysis, and comprehensive multi-currency functionality, on top of its standard features for settlement and accounting.
As an arbitrage specialist, Long Investment Management also placed particular store on TMS2000's extensive coverage of financial instruments including fixed income and equity derivatives, its handling of equity lending and convertible bonds and the full support of ADRs/GDRs to manage arbitrage strategies.
The selection of TMS2000 followed an intensive evaluation process, which considered over 80 proposed solutions worldwide. Robert Jones, Director of Financial Control Limited, the company vested with evaluating solutions for Long Investment Management, says that SimCorp's excellent service record, comprehensive functionality, and TMS2000's structure and ability to be readily understood were vital to its recommendation.
Jones added that TMS2000 fit nicely with Long Investment Management's desire to develop a sophisticated back and middle office via an STP solution capable of not only settling and accounting for trades, but also of pricing and measuring risk on a daily basis. To push STP a step further, Long Investment Management is also looking forward to implementing TMS2000's order routing module which is to be available within the next year.
SimCorp also offers treasury management applications and services, with several large bank clients in the region already. Bruce Wood, Managing Director, SimCorp Asia Pacific, says that better servicing these clients was a key reason for setting up regional headquarters in Sydney last year, but that SimCorp's expertise in risk management and meeting the needs of financial institutions, hedge funds and asset managers means that the company is also well positioned in entering a new market for its fund management solutions.
