Meteor to segregate admin/plan management functions
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Meteor Asset Management is looking to create a new company to hive off the administration function from the plan management promotion for its structured products.
The firm has put an application into the FSA for a new regulated entity to sit alongside its plan management function for the administration of its own plans and third party admin activities.
Managing director Graham Devile says: “The part that runs the admin will do so for us and all the third parties and will be authorised for client money and ring-fenced from the other side of the business.”
Devile says the new vehicle will act as a mirror company and will still be Meteor branded but likely to be named Meteor Investment Management rather than Meteor Asset Management.
Blue Sky chief executive Chris Taylor was particularly vocal about the “imperative of unbundling third party administration services from plan manager and plan promoter risk” following the Keydata debacle.
But Devile says the decision to launch a new regulated entity predated this event.
He says: “This is something we started seven or eight months ago ahead of everything, not with what happened in mind but more that we thought it was a better way of providing investor protection.”
Meteor has also announced plans to launch a range of open-ended funds managed by external experts following news that it has been cleared by the FSA following its review of Lehman-backed structured product promotional material.
In a letter to clients that landed last weekend, the regulator said: “Although we identified significant failings with the promtional material used by some plan managers, Meteor’s material did not raise the same level of conerns given their overall product range and target audience.”
Meteor is due to launch a clean energy fund in the next few weeks which will be managed by Dr. Tauni Lanier who launched the Dow Jones Sustainability Index.
The firm, which currently has £250m assets under management, is also looking to launch a commercial and residential property fund in the New Year.
The firm currently has around 22 staff and is looking to make four more recruits to boost the back-office admin function.
Devile says: “Ever since we set up we have always wanted to diversify, it was never aimed at being just structured products but obviously that is a big part of our business and our third party admin looks like it is going to become a fairly significant part of our business model.”
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