The head of the Bermuda fund administrator Forum Fund Services has said she is "delighted" that financial giant Citigroup is buying up its operations and the business will grow "significantly" as a result.

Citigroup announced yesterday that it was acquiring Forum Financial Group, which runs businesses not only with the hedge fund administrator in Bermuda but also in Portland, Maine and Warsaw, Poland.

"It is brilliant for us," said Ede Conyers, general manager of Forum Fund Services. "We expect no job losses, in fact we are predicting growth."

And Forum Financial Group spokesperson David Goldstein said that while there were few details yet about what would happen to the business in Bermuda, he predicted substantial growth.

"I would anticipate we would have to be prepared to double the offshore work done from Bermuda," he said.

He added that far from laying off any of the 20 employees in the Bermuda office, Citigroup wanted to grow the business. "Our biggest problem is going to be finding people," he added.

Forum Fund Services is the third Bermuda fund administrator to be targeted by a large financial institution in the past couple of months.

HSBC's $1.3 billion buy-out of Bank of Bermuda is said to be a way for the world's second largest bank into the highly lucrative fund administration services niche.

And before that the Bank of New York bought out fund administrator IFA.

"There is a trend there, isn't there?," said Mrs. Conyers. "Some of the bigger groups, particularly if they are not in that business, have been looking to get into the fund administration market ? it adds to their existing product line."

Mrs. Conyers said that Citigroup had wanted to break in to the global financial services sector and had found a company that already had expertise in this area.

And she said having the resources of a company like Citigroup behind them would be a great benefit to business and said that the company was expected to now grow "significantly" under the new ownership.

Mr. Goldstein said: "All our world-wide operations in the US, Poland and Bermuda will continue because there is not an overlap with Citigroup's business.

"We anticipate that in Bermuda the move is going to bring big growth."

He added that Citigroup was very committed to Bermuda and said that Mrs. Conyers had done an exceptional job heading up operations and was expected to stay on at the helm.

Forum Financial Group, a provider of fund administration services with the Bermuda office dealing mainly with the administration of hedge funds, has about 400 employees world-wide.

"This acquisition demonstrates our strategic focus on meeting the fund administration service needs of leading fund managers world-wide," said Frank Bisignano, chief executive of Citigroup's Global Transaction Services.

"Forum has built its business over 18 years through continued customer excellence, as demonstrated by its top ranking in external customer satisfaction surveys.

"We look forward to growing the value and profitability of this business by applying our global operating experience together with introductions to our extensive, premier client base."

Mr. Bisignano said that in addition to establishing a strong presence in fund accounting in the US, the acquisition enhanced Citigroup's transfer agency capabilities and continued the development of their ability to service hedge fund clients.

"Citigroup is committed to integrating this new operation into a world class, scaleable business and enhancing our service offering to new and existing Citigroup clients," said Mr. Bisignano. The deal is expected to close before the end of the year.