MMC has picked up the administration duties for the full range of the almost $1 billion Pie Funds business.
Last year MMC was appointed administrator of the newly-launched Pie-run JUNO KiwiSaver scheme while Trustees Executors (TE) continued to supply services to the boutique manager’s suite of 10 unit trusts.
However, under a deal inked this year, MMC will take over the complete Pie fund administration services, including custody, from TE in June.
Pie, which has offices in Auckland and Hawke’s Bay, currently manages over $920 million on behalf of about 2,270 investors. The group’s tiered fixed fee JUNO KiwiSaver scheme reported more than $26 million under management and more than 1,000 members as at the end of last year.
In a statement Pie chief operating officer, Lance Jones, said: “Wanting to provide our unit trust investors with the same client experience that our KiwiSaver members have was a key driver for this change. MMC has enabled us to enhance our client experience, maximise technology and improve reporting.”
He said Pie aimed to deliver a “professional modern interface” for clients while running an efficient back-office engine.
In a similar deal completed last year, MMC won the registry contract with Milford Asset Management – again from TE – after providing fund accounting and unit pricing services to the now $6.3 billion plus manager since 2014.
Tom Reiher, MMC chief, said firm was looking forward to bringing the whole Pie range into its orbit.
“This relationship reinforces MMC’s ongoing strategic direction, utilising our in-house technology to provide administration and infrastructure to our clients to enable them to better meet their client’s demands,” Reiher said in a release.
MMC has over $45 billion in funds under administration spread across 28 clients and more than 120,000 underlying investors.
Last year the business added custody to its offering, complementing the traditional unit pricing, fund accounting and registry services in the MMC administrative arsenal.