Acquisition will make State Street world's No. 1 real estate asset servicing provider (US/UK)

Acquisition is expected to make State Street the largest alternative asset servicing provider globally with $600 billion (€397 bln.) in assets under administration.

State Street Corporation one of the world's leading providers of financial services to institutional investors, announced today that it is expanding its global fund administration and alternative servicing capabilities with an agreement to acquire Mourant International Finance Administration (MIFA) in a cash transaction. Pending regulatory approvals and other closing conditions, the transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2010.

State Street expects the transaction to be slightly accretive to 2010 earnings, excluding one-time costs.Headquartered in Jersey in the Channel Islands with approximately $170 billion in assets under administration and approximately 650 employees in locations including Dublin, Singapore and New York, MIFA is a leading provider of fund administration services, particularly for alternative investments, such as private equity, real estate and hedge funds.

The acquisition will strengthen State Street's leadership in global alternative asset servicing. The combined State Street and MIFA businesses will rank No. 1 in alternative asset servicing globally; No. 1 in private equity servicing globally; No. 1 in real estate asset servicing globally and No. 2 in hedge fund servicing globally, based on industry survey data1. With the acquisition, State Street will also expand its reach in Europe and Asia and broaden its capabilities for servicing investors' growing real estate administration requirements. "As alternative asset classes have become more mainstream, our institutional customers plan to continue to expand their use of this asset class," said Jay Hooley, president and chief operating officer of State Street. "This acquisition will bring a wider and more comprehensive product offering to our existing and new customers and further develop our servicing footprint in Europe and Asia where expanded capabilities, including enhanced real estate servicing, better enables us to offer customers a full breadth of solutions for all of their business needs."

"Today's announcement will allow MIFA to advance its position in the alternative administration segment of the global fund administration business, broaden its service capabilities and expand to even more markets than before through State Street's global footprint," added Nicola Palios, chief executive officer of Mourant Limited.

State Street has significantly grown its capabilities in the alternative asset servicing segment of the global fund administration market over the last seven years. In 2002, the company acquired International Fund Services (IFS), a leading provider of hedge fund administration services and in 2007 State Street significantly expanded its leadership in this market with its acquisitions of both Investors Financial Services Corp. (IBT) and Palmeri Fund Administrators (PFA).

"MIFA's team of professionals will augment our existing alternative and private equity operations," added Jack Klinck, executive vice president and global head of State Street's Alternative Investment Solutions team. "As a result, State Street is well-positioned to continue to grow its position in the increasingly important alternative asset segment."

With more than $420 billion in alternative assets under administration as of September 30, 2009, State Street's Alternative Investment Solutions (AIS) team provides a complete set of fund accounting, fund administration, risk and credit services to hedge fund managers and private equity managers and institutional investors. State Street AIS has more than 2,400 employees with locations in Boston, Ireland (Drogheda, Dublin, Naas), Toronto, London, Tokyo and Sydney, New York and New Jersey. MIFA has locations in the Channel Islands (Jersey, Guernsey), London, Dublin, Luxembourg, Singapore, Hong Kong and New York.

Source:State Street

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