US group chooses Navan and Wexford for 490 jobs

US-owned financial services group PFPC International has chosen Wexford and Navan, Co Meath, as the locations for 490 new jobs in its fund administration business.

The choice of the regional locations for the IDA Ireland-backed project reflects the difficulty encountered by some groups in recruiting well-qualified people to work in Dublin.

"It's very difficult to hire and retain people in the Dublin market," said PFPC International president Joan Kehoe.

She said the decision to invest outside Dublin was motivated by the availability of workers and not cost considerations.

"The biggest factor was that we wanted to continue to grow."

The group now wants to replicate its initial move to Wexford in 2002 from its base in Dublin, where it set up with two staff 11 years ago.

The new graduate-level jobs in PFPC International will come on stream in the next five years, bringing employment in the group's Irish operations to about 1,000.

Some 290 people will be employed at a new funds administration centre in Navan while a similar Wexford centre that already employs 230 people will hire another 200 staff. The Dublin office already employs 270 people.

The new staff will work in areas such as fund accounting and shareholder record-keeping.

They will service the European market, where PFPC is growing most rapidly, although Ms Kehoe said that a significant part of the US business was "headquartered" in the Dublin unit.

Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Míchéal Martin urged other financial services groups to examine PFPC's decision to choose a regional location "and the reasons why it makes business sense when considering future investment".

The PFPC project is the 20th IDA-backed jobs initiative to be made public this year, with some 2,500 jobs promised.

Ms Kehoe declined to reveal the size of its latest investment and IDA chief executive Seán Dorgan declined to disclose the scale of grant aid promised to the company.

However, Ms Kehoe said the group had invested €8 million in the Wexford unit. PFPC International administers assets of more than $65 billion (€51.4 billion) and services more than 120,000 shareholders for 70 clients and 260 portfolios.

PFPC employs 5,500 people worldwide and supports a global client base from 11 locations in the US, the Republic and Luxembourg.