Apex Group, a global financial services provider, has acquired Boutique Collective Investments (BCI) and Boutique Investment Partners (BIP) in South Africa.

BCI is a collective investments scheme manager (“ManCo”) with a core business focus on third-party branded portfolios. 

BIP is an independent investment management and consulting firm providing multi-manager and consulting services to leading South African independent financial advisors, and their retail and institutional clients.

Peter Hughes, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Apex Group, said: “We are pleased to welcome the BCI and BIP businesses and clients to Apex Group in South Africa. This latest strategic acquisition is further evidence of our commitment to building strategic hubs in South Africa to access the abundant pools of talent that we need to support both our South African and global client bases. We look forward to further enhancing our technology-enabled solutions to service the asset management industry in South Africa.”

BCI will become an Apex Group company alongside the existing FundRock brand which delivers the Group’s ManCo services, enabling more than 1,200 funds with a total of €221 billion in assets under management in 14 countries to streamline their operations in a cost-effective manner.

The additions of BCI and BIP further expand Apex Group’s African footprint following the acquisitions of Sanne Group and Maitland, reinforcing the Group’s commitment to the region and expansion of its local operations.

This strategic acquisition adds $19bn of AuA and add around 50 new employees to the existing Apex Group platform in South Africa which currently employs over 1,200 people across offices in Cape Town and Johannesburg, servicing 140 clients with assets of c. $130bn (ZAR 2.5trn).

BCI and BIP clients will now benefit from access to the Group’s global single-source solution, providing all services required across the full value chain of their business via one convenient and efficient relationship. This includes Apex Group’s Digital Banking, Fund Raising, Distribution and Administration solutions, as well as pioneering ESG Rating, Reporting and Advisory services.

This follows the recent announcement that Apex Group South Africa has sold a minority stake to a 100% Black owned consortium of investors, reaffirming the business’ commitment to unlocking opportunities for growth and to build further strategic teams in sub-Saharan Africa.

Heiko Weidhase, Chief Executive Officer of the Efficient Group (parent company of BCI and BIP), said: “With BCI and BIP becoming part of Apex Group, clients will now benefit from the efficiency of a single relationship with a global service partner delivering technology-enabled solutions across the full value chain of their business. The completion of this acquisition allows us to realign our strategic focus on the continued expansion of our Wealth, Risk and Investment segments which service our growing retail client base.”

Macquarie Capital acted as financial advisors to Apex Group. The management team Efficient Group, the parent company of BCI and BIP facilitated the Acquisition on behalf of Efficient’s shareholders and were advised by Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr Inc.