SAN FRANCISCO and LONDON – March 11, 2010 – Advent Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADVS), a leading provider of software and services for the global investment management industry, today announced Advent’s acquisition of Goya, a privately held Norwegian software provider. Under the terms of the agreement, Advent acquired all of the outstanding shares of Goya.
Through this acquisition, Advent can now offer Goya’s product, Tradex, a software solution for fund managers and fund distributors in Europe and the Middle East. Tradex is ideal for fund managers and fund distributors (fund resellers, financial advisors and wealth managers) seeking a reliable, web-based fund distribution platform. With Tradex, these firms can efficiently make their own and third party funds available to advisors, branches, resellers and shareholders. The order flow (subscriptions and redemptions) from initiation to back-office and between distributors and fund managers becomes highly automated – a process which otherwise is very labour intensive and prone to errors since volumes are generally high. Tradex also seamlessly handles fund switches, standing orders, savings and pension plans, and it manages sales commissions.
By offering Tradex along with Advent’s solution for portfolio management and accounting, Advent Portfolio Exchange® (APX) and trade order management, Moxy®, clients will have a powerful integrated front-to-back office solution for fund and asset management. Already in use by several mutual Advent and Goya clients, the solution is ideal for self-administrating fund managers and asset managers that can run both fund management, discretionary and advisory asset management on one single solution. Fund managers can also maintain their own shareholder register.
Advent and Goya Comments
“We are delighted to welcome Goya’s innovative technology and talented team to Advent as we continue to grow our global business,” said Stephanie DiMarco, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Advent. “We see a rapidly changing market landscape in EMEA and with Tradex, our EMEA clients will have the tools to keep pace with the trends. Further, by combining Tradex with our other solutions, we will have the most competitive solution for the international fund management and distribution market.”
“Becoming part of the Advent team and the EMEA operation provides a tremendous opportunity to take Tradex into the broader marketplace,” said Marcus van Koningsbruggen, Managing Director, Goya AS. “We are thrilled to be joining forces with a proven leader that shares our commitment to innovation and driving success for our clients.”
“We have been working with Goya for several years and already have a number of satisfied clients benefiting from their use of Tradex with Advent solutions,” said Hakan Valberg, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Advent Software for EMEA. “With the changes occurring in the EMEA fund management industry, there is a strong need for an integrated portfolio management and fund distribution platform, so we are very excited about the opportunity that our combined proposition brings to the market.”
Client and Industry Comments
Karine Hirn, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of East Capital, a $5 billion asset manager in Sweden, confirms how the market focus is changing, “Getting closer to investors and building relationships with distributors is one of the top issues for fund managers today. The financial crisis has made this even more strategically important. Looking ahead, regulators are going to make these capabilities even more relevant. The new regulations UCITS IV with European pass-porting of funds will further fuel these needs.”
The business benefits that Tradex can bring to a fund manager or distributor have been experienced by clients across the EMEA region. Munter Alami, Head of Operations for Qatari-based investment banking firm, First Investor commented, “Tradex will help us with launching our new funds, allowing us to take on large volumes from day one. We are also looking to appoint distributors for our funds and Tradex is a great tool to manage such workflows and retail transactions.”
Petter Borg, Chief Executive Officer at independent asset management firm, Pareto Asset Management in Norway said, “The order processing of mutual funds and other funds require a lot of manual steps and is complex, especially with high volumes. We bought Tradex to simplify this process by increasing the levels of automation thereby increasing efficiency with reducing manual input and error rates. With Tradex we can provide a superior service to our clients with a much faster order execution process.”
Kay A. Sagvaag, Head of Operations at Sandnes Sparebank in Norway, a mutual Advent and Goya client since 2004 commented, “Sandnes Sparebank is very excited about the Advent-Goya acquisition. The fact that two of our major system vendors in the investment services area joined forces will lead to new business opportunities, greater synergies between the two solutions and an enhanced offering to clients.”
About Advent
Advent Software, Inc., a global firm, has provided trusted solutions to the world’s financial professionals since 1983. Today firms in more than 60 countries rely on Advent technology to run their mission-critical operations. Advent’s quality software, data, services and tools enable financial professionals to improve service and communication to their clients, allowing them to grow their business while controlling costs. Advent is the only financial services software company to be awarded the Service Capability and Performance certification for being a world-class support and services organization. For more information on Advent products visit http://www.advent.com/about/resources/demos/pr.
Forward-looking Statements
This press release includes “forward looking statements” within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as “expect,” “estimate,” “project,” “budget,” “forecast,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “plan,” “may,” “will,” “could,” “should,” “believes,” “predicts,” “potential,” “continue,” and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements in this press release include, without limitation, statements regarding: the expected benefits of the acquisition; Advent’s resources, expertise and presence; Advent’s products and services; and Advent’s customers; and other matters that involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause Advent’s actual results, levels of activity or performance to differ materially from that expressed or implied by this press release. Such risk factors include, among others: difficulties encountered in integrating acquired businesses and achieving expected synergies; whether certain market segments grow as anticipated; Advent’s ability to retain key employees; the competitive environment of the software industry and competitive responses to the acquisition; and whether the companies can successfully market and license their products, develop new products and gain market acceptance for these products. Actual results may differ materially from those contemplated in the forward-looking statements in this press release. Additional information concerning these and other risk factors is contained in Advent’s most recently filed quarterly report on Form 10-Q and 2008 annual report on Form 10-K. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.
Advent, the Advent logo, Advent Software, Advent Portfolio Exchange and Moxy are registered trademarks, Goya is a Norway registered trademark, and Tradex is a mark of Advent Software, Inc. All other company names or marks mentioned herein are those of their respective owners.
Contacts:
Paul Watthey
Advent Software EMEA
+44 20 7631 9240
[email protected]
Jessica Miller
Advent Software, Inc.
+ 1 415 645 1668
[email protected]
www.advent.com
