Citigroup Corporate and Investment Banking Launches New Operating Platform OpenPrimeSM Specifically for Hedge Funds

OpenPrimeSM Provides Hedge Fund Managers with End-to-End Capabilities -- Including Trading, Order and Portfolio Management and Accounting
 

New York — Citigroup Corporate and Investment Banking today announced the launch of a front to back platform offering hedge funds a trading and portfolio management solution that facilitates multi-strategy, multi-asset class and multi-currency investing. Importantly, OpenPrimeSM allows funds to go multi-prime in a secure, neutrally hosted environment.

Developed jointly with Citigroup's Global Transaction Services and Prime Brokerage businesses, this order and portfolio management platform is backed by Linedata's Beauchamp technology and Citigroup's support, middle office and fund administration services. Readily available across the globe, OpenPrimeSM will benefit funds of all sizes and strategies. It will equip funds to utilize a "one-stop" platform to manage complex portfolios and help satisfy investor and regulatory requirements by providing robust operational infrastructure.

"Our goal is to enable funds to launch and grow their business as well as facilitate the transition to multiple prime brokers in a timely, cost effective manner", said Ali Hackett, Managing Director and Co-head of Global Equity Finance. "The open architecture of this offering reinforces our commitment to our clients and significantly enhances our technology offering to hedge funds", added Tom Tesauro, Managing Director and Co-head of Global Equity Finance.

"Linedata's Beauchamp technology combined with our Hedge Fund Administration and middle-office operations services offers a comprehensive end-to-end solution to hedge funds, said Neeraj Sahai, Managing Director and Global Head of Securities and Fund Services. "Additionally, Citigroup is uniquely positioned to offer this platform in a prime-neutral, secure venue through its Global Transaction Services division."

"We are excited to establish this distribution partnership with Citigroup", said Stuart Farr, CEO of Linedata's Beauchamp business. "Our products' capabilities have been implemented at over 250 managers globally and we will bring this breadth of functionality and experience to our new partnership with Citigroup."

OpenPrimeSM will offer capabilities in four core areas:

  • Order and Portfolio Management: Capability to segment a portfolio across prime brokers and effectively interact with them as well as the fund administrator.
  • Portfolio Analytics and Reporting: Sophisticated functionality to analyze portfolios across different dimensions, view real-time actual P&L (not just flash P&L) and generate flexible and user customizable reports.
  • Trade Entry and Routing: Ability to create trades and route them to the execution broker, DMA and Algorithmic venues of the Manager's choice.
  • Portfolio Accounting: Complete accounting package that includes a general ledger and tax lot and trading ledger engines.

Linedata's Beauchamp products will enable the OpenPrimeSM platform to provide rich functionality:

  • Allow for multiple strategies and support a breadth of asset classes - from equities, derivatives, swaps, fixed income all the way to OTC structured products
  • Access to multiple executing brokers and prime brokers
  • Robust multi-currency features

This strategic technology push, coupled with other recent investments the firm has made, bolsters our competitive edge in Fund Administration and Prime Brokerage and demonstrates our commitment to provide the highest level of service to our clients.

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Citigroup
Citigroup (NYSE: C), the leading global financial services company has some 200 million customer accounts and does business in more than 100 countries, providing consumers, corporations, governments and institutions with a broad range of financial products and services, including consumer banking and credit, corporate and investment banking, securities brokerage, and wealth management. Major brand names under Citigroup's trademark red umbrella include Citibank, CitiFinancial, Primerica, Smith Barney and Banamex. Additional information may be found at www.citigroup.com

Citigroup Corporate and Investment Banking
Our Corporate and Investment Banking group achieves the extraordinary for our clients around the world. No financial institution is more committed to understanding and advancing the goals of its clients – our diverse and talented staff in some 100 countries advises companies, governments, and institutional investors on the best way to realize their strategic objectives. We create solutions for and provide the broadest possible capital and market access to thousands of issuer and investor clients, and no institution better executes the increasingly complex payment and cash management solutions required in today's global economy. Core business lines under Citigroup Corporate and Investment Banking include Global Capital Markets, Global Banking and Global Transaction Services.