In advance of the event, Delano spoke with Pierre Weimerskirch, managing director of Luxembourg Investment Solutions. He is a panellist on the “Operational Efficiency--a constant adaptation to the drivers of change and evolving PE operating platforms” talk on Tuesday at 3:15pm.
Aaron Grunwald: What do you want the audience to get most from the “Operational Efficiency” panel?
Pierre Weimerskirch: The PE fund industry has developed significantly in operational sophistication over the past 5 years. Some of these developments were driven from regulation and others by the investors. Our panel will address these developments and explore operational best practices which we would like to share with the audience. Moreover, we will also discuss different operating models (in-house vs. outsourcing) and explore the considerations regarding the decision to outsource operational functions.
From a very high level, what has been the net impact of the AIFMD on PE funds?
The key benefit of the AIFMD is the ability to market PE funds in a standardized way to investors throughout Europe. Moreover, the AIFMD framework led generally to increased operational quality standards, higher transparency and better governance in the sector. Since inception of the AIFMD in 2013 the sector has become more professional in my view.
What industry standard would you like to see implemented next?
To make the AIFMD passport work more efficiently, the cross-border marketing rules should be applied in a more harmonized and consistent way at national level: a harmonized definition and application of pre-marketing and reverse solicitation, harmonized application of the passport (e.g., harmonized treatment/levy of registration fees in the different EU jurisdictions).
Aside from your own talk at the ALFI event, which speech or panel are you most looking forward to hearing, and why?
I am looking forward to the panel about “The Art of Fund Raising in PE” [editor’s note: 21 November at 11:30am]. In the end, the success of Luxembourg as a fund centre for AIFs depends strongly on the success of raising money from investors and thus on the attractiveness of the Luxembourg fund ecosystem.