Germany | Hedge Funds

The increasing globalisation of the world's financial markets coupled with technological advances are creating opportunities to trade a greater range of financial products and instruments across international borders and to monitor and control risks more effectively. These developments are now being reflected in the emergence of individual fund managers and traders pursuing a progressively wider range of "alternative" investment styles and strategies, uninhibited by the investment restrictions imposed upon the traditional mutual fund.

SJ Berwin has been structuring such alternative investment vehicles for the last 10 years, including:

• hedge funds
  
• private equity funds
  
• funds of funds
  
• incubators
  
• media funds
  
• property funds
  
• commodity funds
  

We have the resources and experience to handle the most complex domestic and international funds. In association with our correspondent legal and tax firms worldwide, we are able to provide advice in all jurisdictions. Many of the funds we have structured have attracted investment from outside the fund's domestic market. We therefore have considerable experience in catering for the various tax, legal and regulatory requirements of international investors (including the use of feeder funds and structured notes) and the rules concerning the marketing of funds to such investors, whether on a public or private placement basis. We are familiar with the ERISA requirements of US pension fund investors and the tax and regulatory needs of US investors generally, so as to ease their investment and hasten closing. Indeed, we have US-qualified lawyers in our team.

We advise on all aspects of the structure and operation of alternative investment managers and hedge funds and other alternative investment products issued by such managers, including:

• the structure and tax treatment of funds and special purpose vehicles
• the tax efficient structuring of performance fee, carried interest and other incentive arrangements
  
• margin, collateral, brokerage and other trading arrangements
  
• the specialised regulatory issues attaching to the operation, marketing and distribution of alternative products
  
• repackaging of alternative investment vehicles and products to access specific markets, investments and/or investors
  
• obtaining regulatory authorisation and the provision of compliance support for managers of alternative investment funds both in the UK and abroad
  
• competition law/anti-trust matters affecting merger arbitrage fund managers