Adoption of the Macron Law - Creation of the SLP

The bill on the Growth and Activity and Equality of Economic Opportunities, known as the Macron law, was finally promulgated in France on 6 August 2015. The Macron law sets out number of amendments with respect to French financial law. Among others, it created the société de libre partenariat (the SLP), which is a form of French partnership which will allow France to compete with English limited partnerships and the Luxembourg’s recent limited partnership (the société en commandite simple/spéciale, the SCS/SCSp). The Paris office will host a presentation on 5 November 2015 which will aim at presenting (i) the SLP, (ii) its legal and regulatory constraints, (iii) its tax regime and (iv) a comparison with the Luxembourg SCS/SCSp.

Read the Loi Macron (in French).

Adoption of the Macron Law - Real Estate Funds

The Macron law also provides for certain improvements to the regime applicable to the organisme de placement collectif immobilier (the OPCI, a French real estate AIF). Pursuant to the Macro law, OPCIs can now invest in movable assets (biens meubles, biens d’équipement ou biens meubles affectés à un immeuble) which are necessary for the OPCI to rent the properties it acquired, which will allow the OPCIs to invest in new categories of assets (for instance, student and senior residences).

Read the Loi Macron (in French).

French Tax Administration Publishes Details of Bilateral Intergovernmental Agreement relating to FATCA Regulations

The French tax administration published on 5 August 2015 details on the implementation of the bilateral Intergovernmental Agreement signed by France and the United States with respect to the FATCA regulations. The comments provides additional details, among others, on which French entities are deemed to constitute Non-Reporting French Financial Institutions and the application of FATCA on French collective investment schemes (organismes de placement collectif).

Read the French Tax Administration’s comments.

Update of the AMF Doctrine: Ancillary Liquid Assets

Pursuant to the AMF modifications to its doctrine with respect to the AIFM Directive, the AMF has amended its Position-Recommendation n° 2011-25 with respect to the level of liquidity a French fund can hold on an ancillary basis. Article 5.3 of this Position-Recommendation now provides that, for French UCITS and most of the French regulated AIFs, the ancillary level of liquidity that can be held by a fund is limited to 10% of its net assets. Furthermore, the article provides that, in certain circumstances justified by exceptional market conditions, this level can be raised to 20% of the fund’s assets.

Read the updated AMF Position-Recommendation n° 2011-25.