Eyes on Growth - June 2007
KNEIP focused on success
The recent investment in KNEIP reflects 3i’s Growth Capital partnership approach. KNEIP is a Luxembourg-based outsourcing partner to the fund management industry. Bob Kneip, the CEO and founder, and Bruce Keith, the 3i Director who led the deal, talk about what our investment means for KNEIP.
What do you think attracted both parties to each other?
BOB: It was the strategic insight that a new partner can bring that appealed to me most. KNEIP has achieved a strong market and financial position and is now looking forward to the next level of substantial growth.
BRUCE: KNEIP’s knowledge and technology intensive platform provides a great customer offering, the team is terrific and the market, the European fund management industry, is growing strongly. We believed there was an opportunity to further develop KNEIP’s service offering into the middle office.
BOB: 3i was absolutely aligned with us. We developed a shared vision of where we should and could bring the company to; not only on the ultimate objective but the paths leading there. Also, 3i is an excellent partner to be affiliated with and will bring our clients further confidence in the company.
Tell us more about the shared vision:
BRUCE: It is fundamental to our partnership approach that we spend time developing a shared vision for the future development of the business. Our focus on value creation together with a combination of Bob’s deep domain expertise and our experience of supporting growing businesses resulted in an exciting shared vision which we are now working towards.
BOB: We want to retain our exclusive fund industry client base and increase our already established international presence. We aim to become the trusted supplier to large asset managers worldwide with 50% of revenues coming from new services.
What will be 3i’s involvement going forward?
BOB: 3i will take an active role in board management but no involvement in day-to-day management. This brings an objective and constructive view and allows us to think out of the box. They are very ambitious but at the same time very rational and pragmatic about things. It’s truly a dialogue.
Growth is often associated with making acquisitions, but this is only one of the options available to us. It is principally about strengthening the processes, the technologies and the teams inside the company. Our primary focus is adding value to the middle office functions within the investment fund industry and really strengthening our position. What’s more, 3i’s brand will help us attract very high calibre people to work for us in the future.
BRUCE: I am very excited about the relationship going forward. I believe 3i differs from others because it focuses on making good ideas work in practice – not just viewing strategic options as a good idea but thinking long and hard about how to operationalise them for the wide range of businesses with whom we partner. We have developed a vision with Bob and the team and I am proud to include KNEIP in our investment portfolio.