Professional services firm KB Associates has struck an agreement to join the Waystone Group.
KBA is headquartered in Ireland and employs close to 100 consultants with offices in Dublin, London, Cayman Islands, Luxembourg and Malta.
The governance, risk and compliance group Waystone was created through a merger of DMS Group, Dublin-headquartered MontLake and Luxembourg-based MDO in 2020.
Derek Delaney, Waystone global CEO, said KB Associates had been the pre-eminent provider of governance and compliance services in Ireland for almost 20 years.
“We are very fortunate that KBA has chosen to join our institutional partnership and we are delighted to welcome all the key management and consulting staff of KBA,” he said in a press release.
Delaney said the agreement would bring a a depth of institutional UCITS (Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities) fund expertise to the group.
KBA advises over 250 international asset managers and supports investment funds with assets exceeding US$400 billion.
Mike Kirby, KBA founder and managing principal, said the ability to address complex regulatory and governance issues across multiple jurisdictions was increasingly important to the firm’s international client base.
“Becoming a member of the Waystone Group, which has offices in fourteen locations across Europe, North America and Asia, allows us to deliver a single global solution,” he said.
Kirby will become executive chairman – Europe and a board member of the Waystone Group. He will be a significant investor in the combined businesses.
KBA’s Andrew Kehoe will become CEO of the Waystone Group in Ireland with Barry Harrington and Peadar De Barra becoming managing directors of the combined Irish businesses.
Further expansion planned
In July 2021, Montagu Private Equity took a stake in Waystone and replaced MML Capital Partners, another venture capital firm that exited its investment in the founding members of the group. The details of the investment were not disclosed but it valued Waystone at more than $1 billion.
The private equity firm completed its investment in Waystone this month. On Monday, HgCapital Trust announced it will invest £31.8 million in Waystone.
“We recognise Waystone as a leading platform in fund governance, with a differentiated profile and potential to scale further,” said Justin Von Simson, Hg managing partner, in a press release.
Montagu and Hg will become co-controlling investors and partner with Waystone’s management team, led by Delaney, to continue to grow the group’s existing service offering and support further geographic and product expansion through targeted acquisitions.
“Hg will join Montagu and the management team as key shareholders. This will support our growth as an institutional, global service provider, paving the way for further expansion in 2022,” Delaney said.
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