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We believe it is of paramount importance to protect and develop the alternatives asset management industry in the UK following our exit from the EU in order to maintain the UK's status as a world leader in the sector and to ensure that the wider economy continues to benefit from the deployment of global capital across alternatives asset classes by UK based managers.
Finance Partner Katie McMenamin and Funds Senior Associate Ed Ford discuss the bespoke nature of liquidity options available to private equity managers in their Expert Commentary for Private Equity International.
The global COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented situation that will have a long-term impact on the asset management industry, stretching well beyond the current period of lockdown.
This briefing was updated on 30 June 2020.
Potential liquidity concerns are dominating private equity managers’ contingency planning for their portfolio investments. Flexible funding solutions provided on a fund-wide basis have emerged as a means for managers to tap additional capital as needed in order to finance working capital or additional equity for their investee companies.
In the context of continued LP scrutiny of all performance indices and management fee levels, GPs/managers continue to seek to differentiate themselves in terms of yield and broader ‘value add’ for investors. Increasingly they are looking to a range of sophisticated fund management and liquidity tools in order to maximise returns and distinguish their offering.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has set out its expectations of solo-regulated firms under the Senior Managers and Certification Regime (SMCR) in light of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Over the last 4 weeks, in the face of COVID-19 the worldwide economy has experienced the sorts of pressures not seen since the Great Depression. Businesses around the world have been forced to close their doors; we have seen government interventions which, only 3 months ago, would have been unthinkable; and terms such as "social distancing" and "furloughing" have become common parlance.
Alternative assets have enjoyed an unprecedented level of growth over the last decade, which looks set to continue with global AUM growing from $8.8tn in 2017 to a projected $14tn in 20231.
After a tumultuous 2019, it's a new year, a new decade and a new UK Government pledged to "get Brexit done". The UK Parliamentary paralysis that characterised so much of the UK's approach to Brexit last year is over.
The FCA has outlined some key risks of harm in the asset management and alternative investments sector and the steps that firms should take to address these risks.
The Fifth Money Laundering Directive comes into force on 10 January 2020. Firms will need to be ready.
The FCA recently published a feedback report on its 5 Conduct Questions programme. Although the 5 Conduct Questions programme (5CQ) has been running for some years, and was originally aimed at wholesale banks and subsequently extended to certain other wholesale firms, the FCA says that its feedback on 5CQ is now relevant for all firms. Therefore, all firms should consider "if and how" they can effectively incorporate 5CQ into their own organisations.
Asset-backed or net asset value (NAV) facilities as a feature of the fund finance landscape are not new, but their prevalence and uses have increased over the last five years in particular.
The FCA has raised concerns about appointed representative (AR) arrangements entered into by firms in the investment management sector (including AIFMs, asset managers and advisorarrangers). The FCA has identified significant shortcomings in the way that principal firms oversee their ARs, and has found that principal firms often do not adequately assess the risks that the activities of ARs pose to the principal firm's business. In particular, the FCA has stated that it has significant concerns about the use of the "Host AIFM model" under which an AR provides advice to the AIFM, as its principal, and often markets and deals in the units of the AIF.
On 16 April 2019, the European Parliament adopted a new package of measures which will amend the existing regimes governing the cross-border distribution of collective investment funds in the EU: a Directive (CBD Directive) will amend the existing regimes for cross-border marketing of alternative investment funds (AIFs) and undertakings for collective investment in transferable securities (UCITS); and a
Regulation (CBD Regulation) will introduce new standardised requirements for cross-border fund distribution in the EU.
On 15 April 2019, H.M. Treasury published a consultation paper seeking views on the transposition of the Fifth Money Laundering Directive (MLD 5) in the UK.
The new Regulation on prudential requirements for MiFID investment firms (IFR) and the accompanying Directive (IFD) have now been passed by the European Parliament and, subject to adoption by the European Council (which is expected shortly), will become law.