Mourant expands into Guernsey

Mourant, the Jersey-based legal and specialist administration provider that already counts a number of major private equity firms as clients, has acquired fund administrator Redbridge Offshore based in Guernsey. Financial details of the transaction has not been disclosed.

Redbridge will operate as part of Mourant’s International Finance Administration division, which has around $14bn of assets under administration. The 80-strong division, headed by partner Rupert Walker, provides a range of services to international corporations setting up funds, including advice on legal, tax and regulatory issues. Its fund administration clients include CVC Capital Partners, AXA, Alpha and Mercapital as well as JP Morgan Chase and Merrill Lynch.

John Loveridge and Michelle Bewey will continue as managing director and executive director, respectively. Redbridge will continue to trade under its own name until full integration, expected to be in the second half of 2003.

The move is the latest in a list of purchases made by Mourant in the past couple of years, including the acquisition of William M Mercer’s UK-based share plan administration business in 2001. Evidencing the firm's aim to cover all the key offshore financial centres, Mourant has also recently opened for business in Luxembourg. Says Nicola Davies, Mourant’s deputy managing partner: “The intention is to offer a complete administration service for private equity funds wherever they may be located. Ireland is likely to follow suit.”

Commenting on the increasing popularity for general parties to devolve fund administration to third parties, Davies says: “I think you will see more outsourcing, particularly in the area of venture capital funds. The type of bright, entrepreneurial individuals in private equity is quite different from someone who wants to be back at the ranch. It is a different mentality.”

Redbridge Offshore is a provider of offshore financial services, specialising in the structuring and administration of private equity and closed-end funds and corporate entities for institutional clients.