SEI and Ryland Gray Selected by SERCO to Manage End-of-Service Benefits
First Company to Appoint Fiduciary Manager for End-of-Service Benefits in the UAE
DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES -- (Marketwire) -- 09/10/12 -- SEI (NASDAQ: SEIC) and Ryland Gray today announced that they have been appointed to manage the SERCO Offshore Retirement and Savings Scheme (SERCO) which represents the end-of-service benefits and employee contributions for SERCO's expatriate employees in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). SEI will provide a solution that combines global investment management and strategic advice, via SEI's globally-recognized Fiduciary Management service. Ryland Gray will continue to provide Dubai-based administration and scheme advisory services, which they have been delivering since the mid 1990s. This strategic partnership enhances the original scheme.
SERCO is believed to be the first company to utilize a Fiduciary Management solution for the management of their end-of-service benefits in the Middle East. Their decision reflects a proactive desire to offer their expatriate staff a more professionally-managed scheme and the opportunity to invest at institutional fee levels. A Fiduciary Management approach integrates strategic advice and investment implementation with the aim of managing assets against liabilities to achieve funding objectives. SEI will work with Ryland Gray and the SERCO trustees to design a strategy that seeks to match their investments to the liabilities of their end-of-service benefit scheme. This will include strategic modeling to help understand the risks to the scheme and both long-term asset allocation and shorter-term dynamic asset allocation. Assets will be invested in SEI's range of global strategic portfolios.
This announcement follows significant success in SEI's Fiduciary Management business across EMEA and the United States with more than US $7.7 billion of new global institutional assets under management added in 2012.
Commenting on the appointment, Suzanne Bacha, HR Director at SERCO, said:
"At SERCO our employees are extremely important to us and we wanted to ensure we provide them with a professionally-managed and proactive end-of-service scheme. It was particularly important that we could provide the flexibility for our employees to invest in the scheme themselves at institutional rates. We have a long-standing and positive relationship with Ryland Gray as our scheme adviser and administrator and decided that a service that integrated their expertise with SEI as a Fiduciary Manager would achieve our objectives. We were impressed with SEI's long-term track record of providing Fiduciary Management for pension schemes in Europe and the United States and look forward to working with them in achieving our funding goals."
Commenting on the appointment, Simon Fielder, Managing Director of Ryland Gray, said:
"SERCO is a long-standing and important client of Ryland Gray and we are delighted that we have been able to integrate our administration and scheme advisory expertise with SEI's Fiduciary Management service to provide a sophisticated solution for SERCO's scheme. We look forward to working closely with SEI on designing a strategy that better meets the liabilities of the scheme. It is exciting to be involved in the first Fiduciary Management appointment in the United Arab Emirates at a time when many companies are reviewing their end-of-service benefits and seeking new ways to manage them more professionally."
Commenting on the appointment, Jahangir Aka, Head of SEI's Middle East office, said:
"By appointing SEI and Ryland Gray, SERCO has demonstrated its desire to offer the best end-of-service benefit possible to its employees. We look forward to working with the company to achieve its objectives. This appointment reflects a growing trend amongst leading local and multi-national companies looking to add professionalism to the management of end-of-service benefits. SEI's Fiduciary Management solution can provide a service which is accountable to the trustees and can act nimbly to take advantage of investment opportunities as they arise."
About SEI's Institutional Group
SEI's Institutional Group is the first and largest global provider of outsourced fiduciary management investment services. The company began offering these services in 1992 and today acts as a fiduciary manager to approximately 450 retirement, nonprofit and healthcare clients in six different countries. Through a flexible model designed to help our clients achieve financial goals, we provide asset allocation advice and modeling, investment management, risk monitoring and stress testing, active liability-focused investing and integrated goals-based reporting. For more information visit: http://www.seic.com/enME/institutional-investors.htm.
About SEI
SEI (NASDAQ: SEIC) is a leading global provider of investment processing, fund processing, and investment management business outsourcing solutions that help corporations, financial institutions, financial advisors, and ultra-high-net-worth families create and manage wealth. As of June 30, 2012, through its subsidiaries and partnerships in which the company has a significant interest, SEI manages or administers $424 billion in mutual fund and pooled or separately managed assets, including $182 billion in assets under management and $242 billion in client assets under administration. For more information, visit http://www.seic.com/enME/index.htm.
About Ryland Gray
Ryland Gray have been designing corporate retirement and savings plans in the Middle East since the mid 1990's. Ryland Gray designs the plans and back office support process, carrying out the complex administrative duties required to provide the interface between employer, investment manager and employee. www.rylandgray.com.
About Serco
Serco is an international service company, which combines commercial know-how with a deep public service ethos. We improve essential services by managing people, processes, technology and assets more effectively. We advise policy makers, design innovative solutions, integrate systems and -- most of all -- deliver to the public. Serco supports governments, agencies and companies around the world who seek a trusted partner with a solid track record of providing assured service excellence. Our people offer operational, management and consulting expertise in the aviation, BPO, defence, education, environmental services, facilities management, health, home affairs, information and communications technology, knowledge services, local government, science, transport, welfare to work and the commercial sectors. More information can be found at www.serco.com
Issued by:
This information is issued by SEI Investments (Europe) Limited, 4th Floor, Time & Life Building 1 Bruton Street, London W1J 6TL which is authorized and regulated by the Financial Services Authority.
No offer of any security is made hereby. Recipients of this information who intend to apply for shares in any SEI Fund are reminded that any such application may be made solely on the basis of the information contained in the Prospectus.
Company Contact: Dana Grosser SEI +001 610 676 2459 dgrosser@seic.com Media Contact: Ana Baptista Hill and Knowlton +971 4 334 4930 ana.baptista@hkstrategies.com
Source: SEI
Released September 10, 2012