MONTREAL--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Castle Hall Alternatives is pleased to announce that the firm has been selected as the Best Global Due Diligence Firm in the Alternative Investment Awards for the second consecutive year. In addition, Castle Hall’s OpsDiligence platform was recognized as the “Best New Approach to Operational Due Diligence” over the past year.
More information on the awards, including a full list of winners and profiles of each successful company, are available here.
“Everyone at Castle Hall is delighted to be recognized in the Alternative Investment Awards for the second year in a row,” said Chris Addy, Castle Hall’s CEO. “Our firm has made strong progress over the past year, launching the online OpsDiligence platform in August 2014, followed by the more recent addition of OpsMonitor, our innovative due diligence monitoring platform.”
OpsDiligence reflects Castle Hall’s view that due diligence needs across the asset management industry are evolving, with the firm describing the new industry model as “Due Diligence 3.0”. The initial diligence model existed prior to 2008 and the Madoff scandal, during which operational due diligence was considered to be optional, not mandatory. Post 2008, due diligence has become a standard procedure, but work remains focused on the hedge fund industry, with diligence often performed on a rigid, annual or bi-annual schedule.
“Due Diligence 3.0 reflects three core themes,” said Addy. “First, we see convergence: operational due diligence should be applied across all asset classes, not solely hedge funds. As a result, our clients’ usage of OpsDiligence to evaluate private equity and long only mandates has increased exponentially over the past year.”
“As a second theme, allocators are moving towards a flexible, risk based approach to due diligence across asset classes” said Anne Coady, Castle Hall’s managing director. “We recommend that investors create and implement a due diligence policy to establish protocols around diligence required to monitor operational risks in the existing portfolio, as well as onboard new external manager relationships. OpsDiligence supports these initiatives by delivering interactive dashboards and flexible manager monitoring, allowing allocators to implement more sophisticated, risk based diligence procedures.”
“Finally, we see a need for consolidation of data gathering across the industry,” said Addy. “At present, multiple investors may request identical or similar information from the same asset manager as part of their own due diligence programs. OpsDiligence provides a centralized framework in which multiple investors can access information, creating significant economies of scale and cost savings for both allocators and the investment manager community.”
About Castle Hall Alternatives
Castle Hall Alternatives, a member of AIMA, helps global institutional investors, fund of funds, advisors, family offices and endowments identify and manage the business and operational risk of asset managers. With more than 35 professionals dedicated exclusively to operational due diligence, Castle Hall deploys one of the industry’s largest and most experienced due diligence teams. More information is available at www.castlehallalternatives.com.
