Case studies
Hylas Capital
Hylas Capital and Tradar: starting out on the right foot
Background
For Hylas Capital, securing the optimum operational infrastructure from the outset was key. Launched in July 2010, Hylas Capital is a long/short event-driven fund. The management team, all with years of experience at world-leading firms such as UBS and Goldman Sachs, has ambitious plans for the company. From the beginning they were determined to ensure that any investment in technology would create a robust infrastructure that would be scalable and flexible enough to support the business as it expanded.
Adam Horowitz, COO at Hylas Capital, explains: “We wanted potential investors to be impressed not only by our investment strategies, but also to take comfort in our future-proof approach to building a business. By getting the right technology in place at the start we planned to create an operational infrastructure that would maximize efficiencies, make the most of our lean headcount and provide a platform for growth.
“We knew that we would be using multiple prime brokers from the start, and that we needed the ability to run shadow books and records in-house, against which to check the fund administrator’s figures. We quickly recognized that a flexible multi-asset class portfolio management and accounting system should be at the heart of our infrastructure, acting as a hub for all our other systems.”
With these requirements in mind and a firm launch date for the company in place, Hylas set about sourcing a solution that could be implemented to aggressive timescales and was open enough to integrate seamlessly with other systems already selected for use across the business.
Selecting the system
Horowitz continues: “In my previous role at UBS I acted as a consultant to COOs, advising them on all operational aspects of fund management. The in-depth knowledge I built up over the years proved invaluable when we began the selection process at Hylas and we soon identified Tradar and its flagship product, Insight™, as being best suited to our requirements.”
Insight is a highly flexible and scalable portfolio management and accounting system, incorporating real-time P&L reporting, portfolio analysis, prime broker reconciliation and compliance functionality.
For any fund, but particularly for start-ups, the ability to forecast an accurate total cost of ownership is crucial. Sachin Kachhla, general manager for Tradar in the US, explains: “We know that firms need to look beyond the license cost to make an accurate assessment of total cost of technology ownership. The combination of ease of deployment and our experienced delivery teams allows us to provide predictable and cost efficient solutions. The added benefit of that for clients is that we become truly accountable for the success of the implementation.”
“We were impressed by both the product and the company,” says Horowitz. “Insight’s lightweight technology footprint, highly customizable reporting and inherent interoperability played a strong part in our choice.”
Once the selection had been made, the two companies planned the complex implementation, which included other system providers, as well as multiple prime brokers and the fund administrator, all within an eight-week timeframe.
Horowitz explains: “The implementation team worked extremely hard to meet our challenging deadline. During that tight timeframe they got Insight up and running, tailored it to meet our needs and integrated it with other internal systems as well as those of our prime brokers and fund administrator. We had dedicated resources assigned to our project, which meant that there was a very clear understanding of our needs. Post-implementation, the support team has proved to be invaluable with helping users to get to grips with the system and have responded quickly to queries. The whole process has gone very smoothly; I would say that its success is down to the close working relationship that Tradar established with us from the start.”
The result
Tradar’s Insight product sits right at the heart of Hylas Capital’s business infrastructure, feeding into all other critical systems, and is the platform on which its operations are run. Horowitz says: “Everything goes through Insight: it supports every area of our business from front to back. Our internal trading systems are fed by Insight and many of our investment decisions are based on data from the system.”
In the back office, Insight acts as a shadow books and records system for Hylas, and allows the team to calculate exposures and P&L with attribution, run trade capture and commission reporting, as well as reconcile with counterparties at the end of each day. All the reports that Hylas Capital publishes internally to the front office as well as externally to counterparties are generated through Insight.
Insight’s integration with Hylas Capital’s other technology systems allows straight through processing from the front to the back office. This generates significant efficiencies, and reduces the risk that is introduced by manual intervention. Reporting processes are streamlined to allow everyone in the firm to focus on their core activities, allowing Hylas Capital to provide the best possible service to investors.
Conclusion
Hylas has made a substantial investment in its operational infrastructure, which is a powerful demonstration of intent regarding the Company and the brand.
Horowitz adds: “Our clear goal is to grow the business thoughtfully and carefully. This investment is vital for that growth and to reassure our partners and investors about the robustness of our infrastructure controls and our ability to scale the business with them. We are delighted that the decision to invest in Tradar has worked so well. We are extremely confident we now have the right operational structure in place that will serve us and our investors for many years to come.”