Arnhem Investment Management, the Australian equities boutique distributed through BNP Paribas Investment Partners (BNP PIP), is openly tendering its contract for outsourced back-office administration.

The tender is being run by industry veteran Drew Vaughan, the former Mercer principal who now owns consultancy Dymond, Foulds and Vaughan, and aims to find a better portfolio administration services from an outsourced provider, said Mark Nathan, managing partner at Arnhem.

Arnhem, the former Australian equities business of Fortis Investments, is using an “internal solution” from 40 per cent shareholder BNP PIP, but both parties have realised that “back-office services is not part of investment partners’ key components,” Nathan said.

However the bank will continue to perform unit registry functions for Arnhem once the tender is completed and a new provider chosen, which could be within the month, Nathan said.

About $4 billion of Arnhem’s $5 billion in funds under management is in segregated mandates, and the remainder in unit trusts distributed by BNP PIP.