Fund administrators for the alternative asset management industry will soon not be able to resist the urge to merge, as it becomes clearer that only the biggest and strongest will survive to meet the needs of the expanding alternatives market. That is the conclusion of a new research by Carbon360. “Continued merger actions expected among fund administrators as many start to experience technology and personnel limitations,” says firm president Brian Shapiro. This, Shapiro notes, “will be coupled with the demand for ore capacity from hedge fund managers as client bases broaden and once siloed managers turn toward multi-strategies to compete with funds of funds." The study found that only a dozen companies control near 70% of hedge fund assets under administration. Carbon360 also noted that there appears to be a trend of administrators, responding to client pressure, to move from month-end only fee structures to fully daily reporting in an effort to preserve margins.