News and Insights

PRESS RELEASE

February 18 2020 – Global Investor Services Group IQ-EQ to enter a strategic U.S. transaction

IQ-EQ is delighted to announce the acquisition of Blue River Partners (“Blue River”), an industry leading U.S. provider of outsourced solutions to alternative asset managers.  This strategic combination immediately transforms IQ-EQ into a major player in the U.S. private equity and hedge fund services market. The newly combined IQ-EQ U.S. operation will total 200 people in the U.S. as a result of this transaction.

Founded in 2009, Blue River pioneered back-office outsourcing for alternative asset managers, and has grown to become an industry leader, servicing more than 400 clients across the U.S. and employing approximately 180 team members across its 7 office locations – Dallas (HQ), Fort Worth, Houston, Austin, New York, Chicago and San Francisco. The firm provides fund administration to private equity funds; fund operations, middle office and outsourced CFO services to hedge funds; management company operations services; as well as regulatory compliance solutions across all advisory structures. In addition, Blue River’s offering includes tax compliance and advisory services; IT and cybersecurity consulting and managed services; as well as a host of operations, tax and IT services to portfolio companies and assets owned by private equity funds.

IQ-EQ’s worldwide platform combined with Blue River’s broad service offering creates one of the leading alternative fund administration and outsourced services providers in the U.S. A shared entrepreneurial approach coupled with a strong focus on providing high levels of client service positions the newly combined entity as the provider of choice for alternative asset managers.

Blue River founding partners, Mark Fordyce, Chief Executive Officer and Michael Minces, President, will assume the leadership of IQ-EQ’s U.S. operations.

On announcing this acquisition, Group Executive Chairman Serge Krancenblum commented:

“The acquisition of Blue River marks a key milestone for us as it strategically increases our presence in the U.S., the largest and fastest growing fund administration and regulatory compliance market in the world, cementing our position as one of the top 4 investor services firms globally. We have been impressed by Blue River’s growth and professionalism. Under the leadership of Mark Fordyce and Michael Minces we will be in an extremely strong position to capitalize on market opportunities in the U.S. On behalf of IQ-EQ I’m delighted to welcome the entire Blue River team to the Group and look forward to working together to showcase the combined strength of our offering.”

Mark Fordyce, Chief Executive Officer and founding partner of Blue River, added:

“As we met with the management team of IQ-EQ, it quickly became apparent that our two firms take the same approach to business – hiring teams of very talented, experienced professionals and providing exceptional client service.  We are excited to join forces with a firm that is like-minded when it comes to client service.  This acquisition is incredibly strategic as it will allow Blue River to provide global capabilities and solutions to our clients and give us a greater ability to scale with our clients as they grow and expand their businesses.  For the Blue River team, not only does being part of a larger, global organization make perfect sense from a business perspective, it also offers significant benefits to each member of our team in terms of career progression and personal development opportunities.  We look forward to working with the IQ-EQ team and are highly confident that together we will make a permanent and positive impact on the alternative asset industry.”

Michael Minces, President and founding partner of Blue River further commented:

“The Blue River team is incredibly excited about this new endeavor.  We have built our business by thinking creatively, hiring very talented professionals and working hard for our clients every day.  For us this transaction represents the natural evolution of Blue River by expanding our service lines and geographic reach on a global scale. Together with IQ-EQ, we can offer our U.S. client base a highly responsive, team-led fund servicing platform in Europe and Asia. We are also better able to help support our clients’ ambitions to raise capital outside of the U.S.  Simply put, this is Blue River continuing to live up to our commitment to always get better.”