9-Dec-05
Post-publication comment: On December 31st 2005, Odyssey Asset Management Systems fully acquired the Reuters Portfolio Management System (RPMS) business.
The acquisition of the Reuters Portfolio Management System business by Odyssey, expected to close around 31 December, will include the transfer of the RPMS product, contractual customer relationships, and the employees in the three RPMS office locations in Frankfurt, Hamburg and Munich.
Odyssey Asset Management Systems is to acquire Reuters Portfolio Management System (RPMS) business. The acquisition, which is expected to close around 31 December, will include the transfer of the RPMS product, contractual customer relationships, and the employees in the three RPMS office locations in Frankfurt, Hamburg and Munich. Odyssey hopes the move will reinforce its position in the German wealth management market, and enable it to extend its market position in Europe. The 60 existing RPMS customers and 168 entities serviced through an ASP venture will continue to be fully supported by Odyssey through the transferred RPMS teams. Long-term, however, Odyssey expects clients will move from RPMS to the equivalent Odyssey components, stpzone.com has learnt.
According to Odyssey’s general manager of Western Europe Michel Jongen, Odyssey has aimed to achieve leadership in wealth management solutions and has heavily invested in research and development during the past 10 years. “The deal with Reuters is happening because we have been effectively taking a reference position on the German wealth management systems market over the last four years, and Reuters have identified that, with what we now offer, we’re in a better position to serve their clients with solution components that will soon be important to them,” he explains. Within the German market the acquisition will expand Odyssey’s client base from six to 66, Jongen told stpzone.com. Odyssey hopes the move will allow it to service an increasing number of asset management organisations in Germany, by leveraging the combined strength of the existing and acquired business. In addition to the German client base, there are RPMS sites in Switzerland, Austria, Luxembourg and the UK. “We have now truly become a German company, but as an international supplier we are looking forward to expanding our business with the other RPMS clients. The RPMS agreement now positions us to leverage from our reference base with a much better local capacity to deliver,” says Jongen.
Odyssey will retain the existing localised workforce of 40 staff members and intends to maintain those existing RPMS users who do not wish to upgrade to its equivalent wealth management solution Triple’A. In the long term Odyssey expects RPMS clients to migrate to its equivalent components as business requirements grow, says Jongen. “For both parties it was important that the transaction would make their client base feel secure, not only in the context of the delivery of the RPMS contractual obligations, but also in terms of an evolution path, leading to solution components that we are able to offer as a replacement of or around RPMS.” According to Odyssey, RPMS customers will also benefit from its research and development investment, providing RPMS clients with capabilities beyond portfolio management functions, including stronger workflow integration, customer relationship management, reference data management and reporting. “If customers don’t want to upgrade we can still offer additional value for their wealth management business,” Jongen comments.
Existing Odyssey clients HVB, DAB bank, HASPA, HSH Nordbank, and Delbrück Bethmann Maffei are also expected to benefit from the combined expertise and local workforce. “What has been compelling for all parties is that we have proven that our clients are pleased with what we have done so far and we have shown we can cover the same business requirements covered with RPMS, and also much more thanks to our continuous investments and resulting solutions scope.” Odyssey Germany will be expanded by building on the RPMS infrastructure, staff and client base, Jongen continues. “The objective is to keep our combined market share based on an improved value proposition and services capacity,” he concludes.