The BISYS Group of Little Falls, N.J. has announced that it will acquire Boston Institutional Group of Boston, an outsourcing services provider for mutual fund complexes, for $35 million. The purchase will add 30 major mutual fund complexes to BISYS's customer list, according to the company. The transaction is expected to be completed by May, according to BISYS.
BISYS offers two services - fund accounting and transfer agency - that Boston Institutional Group does not, said Dennis Sheehan, executive vice president and chief financial officer at BISYS.
"We hope to cross-sell our fund accounting and transfer agency to Boston's clients and to begin offering Boston's distribution services, such as their wholesaling, telemarketing and marketing services, to our mutual fund clients in order to help them grow their assets," said Sheehan. BISYS currently has some marketing operations, but on a much smaller scale than Boston does, he said.
BISYS will support 120 mutual fund families, representing more than $500 billion in assets when the acquisition is complete, according to the company. The acquisition also includes Financial Research Corporation, a division of Boston Institutional Group, which provides data to the mutual fund and variable annuity industries. FRC will retain its name and will continue to publish the research it has published, Sheehan said.
While the company has been expanding its mutual fund operations in Europe - last spring it acquired Credit Lyonnaiss' mutual fund business in Luxembourg - this is BISYS's first domestic acquisition in several years, according to Sheehan. BISYS is contemplating several other strategic domestic acquisitions, he said.
