The purchase price and other details of the transaction were not given. HVK FOS is expected to be rebranded under the Vistra umbrella during the first quarter of 2014, Vistra said.
The acquisition is expected to strengthen its recently-launched family office services division, Vistra added.
HVK FOS was founded in 2011 by a group of ex-PwC executives, led by ex-PwC tax partner Jac Veeger, and provides expertise in such areas as tax advice, tax structuring, family office services.
In addition to boosting Vistra’s family office business revenues, the family offices services business is expected to generate new revenue streams for the company in its traditional trust services area.
As a result of the acquisition, Vistra Netherlands managing director Sjaak ten Hove will add the title and duties of global head of family office services at the Vistra group, while keeping his current job and title. HVK FOS director Jac Veeger, meanwhile, will lead the new Vistra family office services division in the Netherlands.
In a statement, ten Hove said the existing international network of HVK FOS “could be a logical starting point for a swift international expansion, through selective add-on investments in existing family office services practices”.
Roots in London and Jersey
Vistra dates back to the early 1980s, when it formed the wealth management part of Chiltern plc, a London tax specialist. This business was bought by some of its managers, and a Jersey operation was added. The Vistra brand was launched on 6 November 2006, and additional offices were subsequently opened in such cities as Amsterdam, Geneva and Istanbul.
In 2009, its investors sold a majority stake in the business IK Investment Partners, a Scandinavian private equity firm, in a strategic move that chief executive Bart Deconinck said at the time would to enable it to continue to grow, with the goal of becoming “[one of] the world’s top five fiduciary [trust] businesses in the next three years”.
Since that time, it has indeed continued to grow by acquisition, snapping up such regional rivals as Corporate Services Belgium CVBA, a Belgian corporate services provider; the funds administration operation of Herald Fund Services Ltd, a member of the Herald Group in Jersey; and Netherlands-based TRC Trust.
In 2011, IK Investment Partners acquired Hong Kong-based Offshore Incorporations (Hong Kong) Ltd, or OIL, from the Carlyle Group, saying that it intended to create a "world-leading global trust and corporate services provider" by merging its corporate service arm, Acceptor and Credence Trust, with Vistra.
Vistra is now considered a part of the OV Group, along with OIL, which employs a total of around 750 people, and claims to be the world's third largest provider of trust and corporate services.
