Northern Trust has been appointed as the global custodian to the internationally invested funds of Magellan Asset Management, which plans to launch a UCITS fund in Ireland within the next few weeks.

The new Northern assets total about $US2.5 billion of the Sydney-based manager’s $US6.7 billion. They encompass the Australian managed investment schemes, a global fund and an infrastructure fund. The manager is known as MFG Asset Management in the UK and US.

Northern’s other publicly disclosed fund manager client in Australia is the multi-manager QIC, for which the firm provides middle-office services.

Magellan is one of only a handful of Australian-based fund managers to have successfully gathered assets for international investment. The most spectacular failure was Perpetual’s start-up of an operation in Ireland following a takeout of some portfolio managers of the former Bank of Ireland (subsequently acquired by State Street Global Advisors). The Perpetual start-up attracted press and shareholder derision because of big remuneration packages paid to staff.

Rohan Singh, Northern’s managing director in Australia, said Magellan gained additional comfort from knowing the custodian already supported Australian clients which had both domestic and offshore funds in Ireland.