Connie Mckeage

Following court approval of the Scheme of Arrangement for Iress to acquire 100% of OneVue Holdings (ASX:OVH) at 43c per share, OVH today, 6 November 2020, formally transitions to Iress ownership, delisting from the ASX and capping a six year journey of significant growth since listing in 2014.

“The completion of this strategic acquisition of OneVue by Iress marks an historic moment and welcomes in a new era of further growth and the acceleration of the strategy. The strength of OneVue’s execution and service model paired with the distribution and technology leadership of Iress, dramatically hastens the execution of the strategy beyond what the two organisations could accomplish independently.

Most importantly we are very pleased that the OneVue vision will continue to unfold under Iress’ stewardship and that they are looking forward to working alongside our staff and clients. I want to thank all of our staff for their incredible contributions over the years, and our board for their support and guidance throughout our journey, particularly over recent months.” said Managing Director and Founder, Connie Mckeage.

Following the Implementation Date for the Scheme, Friday 6 November 2020, Connie Mckeage will step back from running of the business, however Connie will be retained by the Iress business in a consultancy capacity.

CFO, Ashley Fenton, and Head of People and Culture, George Ribar, who have been instrumental in the strategic growth of OneVue and the acquisition process, have elected to accept redundancies as part of the transition.

Chairman of OVH, Ron Dewhurst said “Today marks an historic moment for OneVue and the realisation of the core strategy of the group. I want to acknowledge the enormous contributions of the leadership team, in particular Ash and George who have chosen not to move across as part of the acquisition – your contributions under the most trying of circumstances have been unparalleled.

Most importantly, I want to recognise the tireless efforts, incredible vision and foresight of OneVue’s founder, Connie – it has been deeply rewarding to work alongside you. Throughout what would have been the perfect storm for any other business, it is your resilience and sheer determination that have made the difference in realising what we have achieved. I wish you and all of the OneVue team the utmost of joy and future success.”

CEO Fund and Platform Services, Richard Harris-Smith said “It has been an incredible journey to this point, and the acquisition by Iress places us in a much stronger position than ever to realise the strategy we set out to achieve.

The journey to get here hasn’t been without its challenges. We have all learnt so much from Connie and her ability to develop and drive strategy forward and her care for clients is embedded in all of us. Whilst she may no longer be our Managing Director, she will no doubt remain a part of our lives.”

The OneVue team will formally become a part of the Iress business effective from close of business Friday 6th November.

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Australia’s largest registry provider, OneVue, which represents 42 fund manager clients that are trading with platforms through Calastone, is now sending monthly Statements of Holdings and Transactions to enabled platforms on the Calastone network.  The added connectivity sees Calastone automating over 60% of monthly reports issued by fund managers on its network.

Ross Fox, Managing Director, Head of Australia and New Zealand at Calastone, commented: “The fact that the majority of Calastone connected fund managers are now using our Reporting capability shows that industry participants are embracing and benefiting from new and improved ways of managing their fiduciary responsibilities across front and back offices.

“Calastone’s interoperable Reporting solution converts statement information into a single file that allows fund managers and platforms to respectively send and receive monthly unit information, eliminating the need for copious emails, PDFs, faxes and manual portals that drag efficiency.

“With OneVue joining other leading registries in advocating electronic reporting, the question around why manual practices persist grows louder within the industry,” Fox said.

Richard Harris-Smith, Deputy Group CEO at OneVue, commented: “Manual reporting has been a major source of risk and drag in the managed funds value chain that can only be fully eliminated once all participants adopt automation.  Until this happens there will be undue errors, data security risks, delays, and costs that unjustifiably inhibit innovation and best practice. Platforms can now instantly digest and identify unit holding discrepancies with us, closing the timing gap on transaction queries that could otherwise take months to resolve,” he said.

Calastone’s Reporting solution is expected to yield greater benefits as more participants move away from manual processing, as seen with Calastone’s Order Routing solution, which now automates the vast majority of wholesale managed fund transactions between platforms and fund managers.  These participants need to opt in for Reporting functionality in order to send and receive monthly statements electronically over the network.

“Manual processing that persists today needs to be reviewed against rising demands for accuracy, speed, security and transparency around processes and outcomes. The faster and more accurate we can make reporting within the system, the more time and focus we can apply to delivering better client experiences and outcomes,” Fox said.

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Richard will lead the Fund Services Operations team, focusing on enhancing service delivery to existing clients and further expanding OneVue’s innovation and operational excellence in fund administration services.

Richard joins OneVue after 18 years at Goldman Sachs, where he was Head of Funds Operations.

With 25 years’ experience in the asset management business, Richard has developed a deep understanding of unit registry, fund administration and custody operations across the Australian, European & Asian markets. Richard was previously head of the European shareholder services team for Goldman Sachs Asset Management based in London before moving to Australia in 2006 to play an integral role in the transformation of the local Asset Management business.

OneVue’s EGM Fund Services Richard Harris Smith, said: “Richard brings a wealth of operational and registry knowledge and a fantastic track record in supporting business growth while maintaining excellent service performance for existing clients. Richard’s global operational risk and controls experience adds further capability to an already strong team.”

Richard Linnegan said the appointment provides an opportunity to further leverage the scale and operational excellence of OneVue’s operations: “OneVue has a very exciting future in terms of growth and contributing to a culture of providing excellent service to its clients is something I am passionate about.”

“OneVue Fund Services is on track to double the number of fund managers and funds it manages over the next 18 months so we need to continue to hire the best people in the market,” commented Richard Harris Smith.

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In response OneVue has further increased its depth and capability in this key service area with the appointment of Angelia Tonkin to the role of Head of Client Services based in Melbourne.

With over 17 years’ experience in the financial services industry, Angelia joins OneVue after four years at Neuberger Berman, where she was Vice President, Sales, Client Support and Marketing. Prior to that, she was the Client Services Manager at Hastings Funds Management where she was responsible for the client and asset consultant service as well as relationship management for both domestic and international institutional clients.

OneVue Head of Fund Services, Richard Harris-Smith, said: “I am delighted to welcome Angelia to the Fund Services team. As we progressively realise our significant business pipeline over the next 12-18 months, it is important that we structure ourselves to prepare for this growth and not only maintain but increase the service levels for both our existing and future clients. OneVue is recognised in the market for our service delivery and we are taking steps to ensure that as we grow this will not be compromised.”

Over the past twelve months, the number of fund managers that have outsourced services to OneVue has more than doubled and the number of funds administered has grown to over 450 funds. With increasing scale and increased transaction levels up by 63% over this period, service level agreements continue to exceed 99% across the outsourced unit registry services. OneVue’s continued focus on automation is key to both revenue and margin growth.
OneVue are now Australia’s market leading outsourced unit registry business for managed funds with $420 billion in funds under administration.

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Based in OneVue’s Melbourne office, Chris Aylen joins Fund Services in early August. He will lead the 65-strong Fund Services operations team through its next phase of growth.

As a senior finance professional with extensive leadership experience, he joins OneVue after five years at Vanguard Investments, where he was the Head of Fund Accounting & Administration.

With 30 years of sector experience and a deep understanding of Unit Registry, Fund Accounting, Unit Pricing and global Custodian operations, he also worked at Vanguard Asia-Pacific as the Client Relationship Manager for JP Morgan managed funds and ETF products, and for State Street (Hong Kong domiciled) ETF products.

Previous roles include those of Chief Financial Officer at both Lachlan Partners and the Victorian Transport Accident Commission.

OneVue Head of Fund Services, Richard Harris-Smith, said: “I am delighted that Chris is joining OneVue’s Fund Services business. He brings a wealth of knowledge and experience that will complement not only operations but the business broadly and his appointment corresponds with our increasing transition pipeline. Most importantly, his attitude to clients, colleagues and stakeholders resonates well with OneVue, where cultural fit is so important.”

OneVue Managing Director Connie Mckeage added: “Chris’s appointment further frees Richard to concentrate his efforts on clients, services and strategy for the Fund Services business. With an ever-increasing client base, it is important to focus on not only maintaining but also increasing the high levels of service for which we have become recognised.”

Fast-growing OneVue now offers Australia’s largest outsourced unit registry business for managed funds.

For the June quarter, Fund Services transactions are up 120% year-on-year, with a further $3.1 million per year of contracted revenues in transitions scheduled over the next 18 months.

Fund Services’ funds under administration grew by $7.7 billion in the quarter and now administer more than 400 funds, representing over $420 billion in assets.

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Richard is responsible for all unit registry activities including sales, relationship management operations, transitions and the full suite of products including mFund and Calastone. He is will also represent Fund Services and contribute more broadly to OneVue’s overall strategy as the newest member of the OneVue Management team.

“OneVue continues its significant investment in developing its highly-automated platform to support its clients’ growing unit registry requirements,” said OneVue’s CEO Connie Mckeage.

“I look forward to the opportunity to working more closely with OneVue’s existing clients and seeing how we can add greater value to their businesses. Also potential clients who are still considering how best to manage the practicalities of building better unit registry operations alongside the ever-growing regulatory/compliance environment,” said Richard Harris-Smith, Head of Fund Services at OneVue.

“I think the industry is drawn to using registry services like OneVue’s because it is obvious they genuinely care about their clients and are continuously investing in automation and are open to implementing good ideas from within the organisation and from their clients. OneVue’s client base is like the who’s who of Australian fund managers which means you are not only getting ongoing investment in the business but good ideas continuously being put forward by some very innovative domestic and global clients.

“Also, increasing automation to ensure standards are continually met while retaining cost efficiency are critically important together with the opportunity to set standards and common practices within the market place across multiple users. I was very much drawn to OneVue by its growing position within the funds management sector and its strong and involved leadership enabling such growth,” said Mr Harris-Smith.

Richard joins OneVue from JP Morgan where he was in charge of product solutions for over six years. He is also an experienced Corporate Lawyer and Commercial Director.

Earlier he had worked at the CLS Group in London and New York which developed the global ‘continuous linked settlement’ system for international settlement of foreign exchange.
OneVue’s CEO Connie Mckeage described Richard as a valuable hire for the group:

“We are not short of talented people at OneVue but it is noteworthy that Richard has worked for over 25 years, locally and globally, and he will contribute significantly not only to OneVue’s Funds Services business but to the Group as a whole. He will be measured however on the continuing and disciplined growth of Fund Services.

“We took our time finding the right person because fitting in with our culture is very important to us – Richard has that balance between being process driven whilst demonstrating a passion for getting it right for our clients. That combination is quite difficult to find.”

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