Portland hedge fund admin gets high marks
A Portland hedge fund administrator has received top marks in a global survey by a financial trade magazine, edging out its competitors in a crowded, and still-shaken, industry.
Stone Coast Fund Services, founded in Portland in 2006, received the highest rating ever in the survey's 14-year history, according to a press release from the company. The survey, conducted by Global Custodian, a magazine that covers the international securities service industry, ranked Stone Coast, which also has a small office in Bermuda, as number one in the "Minor Providers" category.
Stone Coast Founder Marc Keffer credits the high marks to a strong team. He tells Mainebiz his business' strategy to please clients is "really hiring the best possible people and retaining them." His employees have more experience on average than typical hedge fund workers, he says, and also have a long history of working together. Many of Stone Coast's 31 employees in Portland worked previously with Citigroup and Forum Financial Group in Maine, including himself, Keffer says.
Global Custodian said the 2009 survey took place during the most tumultuous period in the industry since the survey began in 1995. "The rescue of Bear Stearns, followed by the collapse of Lehman Brothers, not only made it immensely difficult for hedge fund managers to access financing, but also obliged them to respond to investor concerns about counter-party credit risk and the safety of assets in custody with prime brokers," the magazine wrote in a press release.
The survey will likely give Stone Coast a boost in an industry that relies on referrals. "We're not doing a lot of advertising," Keffer says. "We have an extremely reputation-driven business model. This is a wonderful bit of publicity."
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