Apollo’s Athene partners with MUFG

The $68bn subsidiary of Apollo Global Management hired Mitsubishi’s investor services arm to outsource certain middle- and back-office operations.

Apollo Global Management’s subsidiary Athene Asset Management has established a partnership with Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group’s MUFG Investor Services, the firm said on Monday.

Los Angeles-based AAM, which manages $68.2 billion in assets across corporate credit, private placement, real estate and alternatives, was established by private equity firm Apollo to provide asset management services for Athene Life Re, a reinsurance company, according to AAM and Apollo’s websites.

AAM selected Mitsubishi UFJ’s global asset serving arm, MUFG Investor Services, to outsource its business processes in select middle- and back-office functions, according to a statement.

“AAM chose [MUFG] from a number of candidates; I believe they started with five to seven, and ultimately brought the list down to two finalists,” MUFG Investor Services global head of relationship management McAllister Kirschner told pfm. “The selection process included formal request-for-proposals, scope definition, project design and onsite due diligence.”

He added this is the first time AAM and MUFG are working together, and MUFG will provide trade support, portfolio administration, data management and performance reporting on behalf of AAM.

There is no impact on Apollo’s ownership of AAM due to this partnership, he said.

According to MUFG’s website, the Tokyo-based service provider offers products in areas such as fund administration, regulatory reporting, banking, depositary, trustee, securities lending, foreign exchange and custody.

“AAM selected MUFG to provide business outsourcing solutions and staff augmentation to support our growth,” AAM executive vice president of business operations and compliance Troy Spencer said in the statement.

This partnership follows MUFG’s hiring of Kate Stallard as executive director of business development for Europe, the Middle East and Africa in September, as reported by pfm. Stallard came from financial services consultancy IRIS Partners in London.

MUFG currently provides administrative services to more than 2,400 funds in various asset classes and has $485 billion in assets under administration, according to the statement.

AAM was not available to comment.