Always at your service! - Fund administration....

The third of six articles written by Rolf Majcen, Managing Director FTC Capital GmbH, Vienna, Austria, www.ftc.at:

Gibraltar provides competitive alternatives for the hedge fund industry, be it as a domicile for establishing new funds (or a home for redomiciling of existing funds) or - irrespective thereof - as a location for administering hedge funds domiciled elsewhere.

Gibraltar is flexible and friendly. It is an exciting place to do funds business. The rationale of the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission (FSC) is obvious - make it a quick and painless process, to enable funds to launch efficiently in Gibraltar. The competitive Experienced Investor Fund-Regime, which was developed in August 2005, enhanced Gibraltar's attraction as a domicile for alternative investment funds and a good number of hedge funds, private equity funds and property funds have already gone down that route. Authorisation under the EIF Regulations is based on a system of self-certification by the investor, the fund administrator and the fund's lawyer. But Gibraltar is not simply a fund domicile. It's forward-thinking legislation and straightforward regulation enables the local fund administrators not only to specialise in administration capabilities and corporate services for structures domiciled in Gibraltar but also for funds established in other jurisdictions.

Traditionally the hedge fund route has been to domicile hedge funds in offshore jurisdictions such as the Cayman Islands, and to a lesser extent, the British Virgin Islands and Bermuda but have them administered in Dublin and listed on the Irish Stock Exchange. However, competition for alternative fund administration business has become intense as it has grown from a small and relatively specialised activity into a mainstream field. Gibraltar has started to get in on that act by servicing sophisticated funds domiciled in other countries. A significant number of these are hedge funds registered in the Caribbean where the promoters require the administration to be carried out in the European time zone. To exemplify, Cayman exempted companies registered as mutual funds under section 4 (3) of the Cayman MFL, the most common fund vehicle in Cayman, or BVI international business companies (private and professional mutual funds) are allowed to be administered from another jurisdiction, therefore even from Gibraltar, which is part of the European Union!

Service providers in Gibraltar are keen to grow the industry, and with its moderate cost base, the domicile is proving to be a very attractive altern......................

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Always at your service! - Fund administration....