Sovereign wealth fund GIC has joined affiliates of private equity investor Hellman & Friedman to buy global financial technology business Allfunds Bank for €1.8 billion (S$2.7 billion). The two parties are acquiring Allfunds from a group of shareholders that include Intesa Sanpaolo Group, Santander Group, General Atlantic and Warburg Pincus.

Allfunds is a business-to-business platform that offers integrated technology-based solutions to asset managers and distributors of mutual funds.

It has more than 530 institutional clients, including commercial banks, private banks and insurance companies from 38 countries.

The company has a global network of offices across Europe, Asia and Latin America, and more than €265 billion of assets under administration, covering 51,000 funds from 541 fund managers.

The strong wealth creation in Europe and Asia will drive greater demand for investment management products, a joint statement said yesterday. "Allfunds' strong management team will capitalise on this long-term opportunity by continuing to expand the business across Europe, Asia and Latin America," it said.

Mr Henry Ormond, head of direct investments group for Europe at GIC Private Equity, added: "As a long-term value investor, GIC is confident in Allfunds' scalable business model based on its leading European market platform, diversified customer base and long-term contracts.

"We believe the company, supported by our partnership with Hellman & Friedman, will grow to be the global market leader in the fund management industry."

The deal marks one of GIC's latest moves into the fintech space. In October 2014, for instance, GIC invested an undisclosed sum into United States-based mobile payments start-up Square.