In advance of the event, Delano spoke with Patricia Volhard, a partner with the law firm of Debevoise & Plimpton, in Frankfurt. She moderates the “The art of fund raising in Private Equity - what matters most to the front line of PE capital raising” panel, Tuesday at 11:30am.
Aaron Grunwald: What do you want the audience to get most from “The art of fund raising in Private Equity” panel?
Patricia Volhard: Structure and reporting is very important these days. Institutional investors are subject to their own regulatory requirements and it is important to be aware of them and address them. Under Solvency II, insurance companies get a better capital treatment when investing in EU funds (assuming not leveraged and closed ended), In addition, they will be asking for the Solvency II reporting.
What are the top challenges today in setting up a new PE fund in Europe?
Making sure that the investors’ concerns are properly reflected and that AIFMD requirements are met. A global investor base will have different tax and regulatory concerns and ideally the fund structure addresses all these concerns.
What regulatory issue is not getting sufficient attention from the industry currently, and what would you like fund firms to know or do about it?
The industry should be aware of current development towards centralisation of supervision by [the European Securities and Markets Authority]. The EU commission recently published a proposal pursuant to which ESMA would be more involved in supervising delegation arrangements to non-EU countries. Even if the law as such does not change, it could have an important impact if an additional lawyer of supervision is introduced as it adds further complexity to applications and potential legal uncertainty.