Technology
New UCITS Platform Launches In Ireland

The Malta-headquartered asset manager ML Capital has launched a new Irish UCITS platform following amendments to the Irish regulator’s naming conventions for authorised investment funds – changes which the firm was actually involved in bringing about.
The amendments to the regulator’s naming conventions, which came into effect at the beginning of the month, mean that the sole reference to an investment manager’s name will now be permitted in the title of a sub-fund within an umbrella fund structure. This change came about following a request made by the Dublin-based law firm Matheson Ormsby Prentice on behalf of ML Capital.
The Montlake UCITS platform is designed to provide investment managers with what ML Capital describes as a “turnkey solution” for launching a UCITS fund under its umbrella structure. Time to market will typically be six to eight weeks, the firm said. Funds placed on the platform will use Citi for custody, administration and trustee services and KPMG for audit.
ML Capital’s stated objective is for the funds offered via the platform to be diversified both strategically and geographically. The first fund launch will take place at the start of October and two further launches are planned for later in the year, ML Capital said.
“The movement of hedge funds to the mainstream through UCITS is the most significant development in the investment management industry in recent times,” ML Capital Group's chairman John Lowry told WealthBriefing. “This is an important venture for ML Capital as we seek to establish ourselves as a market leading provider of quality hedge funds accessed through the UCITS structure.”