Not that long ago one would not have expected to see ‘Hedge fund managers’ and ‘UCITS’ appearing in the same sentence. However things have been changing, no doubt in part fuelled by memories of Lehman’s, Ponzi schemes and the proposed AIFM EU Directive.
We have recently seen the likes of Man Group and Cheyne Capital announcing the launch of UCITS schemes and the other day Smith & Williamson reported plans to convert its Enterprise Hedge Fund into a UCITS compliant vehicle. An article in the FTfm of 28th September suggests that two-thirds of hedge funds could live within a UCITS wrapper.
David Moffat and Brian Archer of IFDS gave an informative and well received presentation on UCITS Schemes and Regulation the other week at 4 Cavendish Square (a link to the slides is below).
We are thinking of running a follow up presentation on UCITS if there is sufficient interest. The presentation would be focussed on the more practical aspects of the product rather than simply giving an overview of the UCITS regime.
The seminar would be specifically directed at the more important logistical issues that face firms when launching a UCITS scheme and how the process may be completed without needing a variation of permission from the FSA. We would also cover other authorised funds which include NURS and QIS.
If you feel that this would be of interest to you (or a colleague or contact) then do let us know via the contact email address shown in the Regulatory Roundup.
