Pareto has been an Equro customer since 2014, when the company adopted the shareholder register solution. In 2021 the partnership took a new step, as Pareto moved over to Totalis. The aim was to bring business management, investor communication and compliance for unlisted investment products together in one platform — but above all to get a specialist system backed by specialists, and an API solution that offered flexibility, from a provider that specialises in project finance. The story is a concrete example of how financial institutions can replace fragmented systems and spreadsheets with one coherent infrastructure — without compromising on the precision the industry demands.

Rising demands in the unlisted market

Pareto is a leading Norwegian financial player, with operations ranging from brokerage and asset management to business management and project finance. A key part of this business is managing unlisted investment products — project companies in shipping and real estate — on behalf of a large number of investors. It is a task with strict requirements: the shareholder register must be kept up to date continuously, customer due diligence and anti-money laundering (KYC/AML) must be documented on an ongoing basis, general meetings must be conducted and minuted correctly, and investors must have an overview of their own positions at all times.

As for many players in this market, this type of administration has traditionally been spread across several systems and spreadsheets that do not talk to each other. This increases both the workload and the risk of errors, and makes it harder to give investors the insight and response times they expect.

For Pareto, this has never been an unfamiliar issue. As early as 2014, Pareto Securities Project Finance became an Equro customer, at that time for the shareholder register solution — managing shareholder registers for unlisted companies. More than 100 new companies were brought into Equro's register, shareholder data and processes were standardised, and the capital history across the companies was consolidated — resulting in significantly better data quality and control. This laid the foundation for a relationship of trust that has lasted more than a decade, during which Equro has specialised further in project finance and digital shareholder registers, and has in practice become an industry standard in the field. When Pareto decided in 2021 to consolidate everything with one provider, the natural choice was therefore Equro, which already knew the field: a specialist system backed by specialists, and a solution-oriented team.

Why Totalis

Totalis is Equro's platform for private capital markets, built specifically for financial institutions that handle unlisted financial products. Instead of forcing customers to adapt to the system, Totalis is made up of standalone modules — including project and investor administration, transactions and corporate events, investor communication and compliance — that can be combined to fit each financial institution's own structure and workflows. For Pareto, it was this flexibility, combined with the industry expertise of the Equro team, that tipped the balance.

“We needed a solution that understood how we actually work with unlisted products, not a generic system we had to bend our business around. What convinced us about Equro was the combination of industry understanding, a modern platform and a team that was willing to adapt the solution to our processes from day one.”

Sven I. Hegstad, CEO of Pareto Business Management

“The API solution gave us the flexibility we needed to connect Totalis with the rest of our system landscape. But just as important is that Equro is a specialist system backed by specialists — it’s not just software, it’s people who understand the industry and who are solution-oriented when we face something new.”

Line Caliskaner, Business Support/Data Protection Officer at Pareto Securities

From scattered systems to one connected whole

In practice, the move to Totalis means that Pareto can today follow the entire life cycle of an investment in one system. CRM and onboarding with KYC/AML are linked directly to Equro, and day to day the team uses several of Totalis' modules side by side — the customer module, business management and the brokerage section with the order books. The platform's API also connects Totalis to Pareto's own investor portal, where investors have a real-time overview of their holdings and return figures, at both project and investor level. It is precisely this flexibility in the API that Pareto highlights as something they actively use, rather than being tied to a single fixed interface.

This modular design is the very point of Totalis: the platform is built to work together with the rest of the technology Pareto uses, rather than replacing it. That is what has made it possible to phase Totalis in without rebuilding the entire underlying technology stack — and what allows Pareto to connect the platform to its own solutions, such as the investor portal, instead of being locked into one provider's interface.

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A partnership built to last

From the start, Equro's philosophy has been to build for the players that want to be the best in their segment, not for the broadest possible market. It is a mindset that CEO Anders Viken Tøftemo believes has become even more important as requirements for reporting, compliance and investor transparency have increased.

“Pareto is exactly the kind of customer we build Totalis for — a player with high demands for precision and a business in continuous development. What makes me most proud of the partnership is that it hasn't stood still since 2014. As Pareto's needs have changed, the platform has kept pace, and it is precisely that ability to grow together with the customer that separates a good supplier from a lasting partner.”

Anders Viken Tøftemo, CEO of Equro

The road ahead

More than ten years into the customer relationship, and five years into the Totalis partnership, the platform is an integral part of how Pareto manages its unlisted investment products. As industry regulations continue to tighten and investors demand more digital insight, both companies point out that the foundation is already in place: one platform, built for scale, with compliance and traceability built in from the ground up. For Equro, Pareto's story is an example that the future of private capital markets is not about more systems — but about one system that can do it all. A specialist system backed by specialists.

“It's easy to choose a system that covers today's requirements. What's harder is choosing a solution that will still stand up in five years' time, when the regulations have changed again. That's why we chose Equro's Totalis system.”

Sven I. Hegstad, CEO of Pareto Business Management

“We continue to develop Totalis together with customers like Pareto — it's in the day-to-day collaboration that we see where the platform needs to get even better. The goal is that Pareto should never feel they have outgrown the system.”

Joachim Abelseth, Chief Product Officer at Equro

 

About Pareto Securities Project Finance

Pareto Securities' Project Finance division is a leading player in project finance and investment banking within real estate, shipping, offshore and renewables. Our services span the entire range from the establishment and management of individual real estate or shipping/offshore projects to the arrangement and advisory of complex projects and corporate finance transactions.