Public Consultation on the Origination of Loans by Funds

Within the framework of the implementation of the ELTIF Regulations in France, the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (“AMF”) launched a public consultation on 22 October 2015 in order to study the possibility for certain French investment funds to originate loans under restrictive conditions. The main conditions set forth by the consultation are the following: (i) obligation for the management company to have a specific programme of operations, allowing it to handle receivables (créances), (ii) only professional specialized funds (fonds professionnels spécialisés), professional private equity funds (fonds professionnel de capital investissement) and securitization funds (organismes de titrisation) will be authorized to originate loans; (iii) these funds will be closed-end funds; (iv) funds which originate loans will not be allowed to use leverage, short-selling, lending or derivative financial instruments, except for hedging purposes; and (v) the loans will be granted exclusively to non-financial undertakings and will have a maturity of no less than two years. The consultation is open until 4 December 2015. 

Implementation of the Provisions Governing the New “French Limited Partnership” (SLP)

The final texts with respect to the creation of the Société de Libre Partenariat (the “SLP”, the French limited partnership) have been published in the last weeks. The decree n° 2015-1204 provides mainly additional information as to the content of the SLP’s articles of association and the reporting requirements sent to the investors. The Arrêté of 29 September 2015 amends the General Regulation of the AMF in order to insert several provisions applicable to the SLP. In addition, the AMF Instruction n° 2012-06 has been updated in order to provide a framework for the creation of SLPs.

The Paris office will host a presentation (SLP française ou SCSp luxembourgeoise: quel véhicule choisir?) 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.

ESMA’s Consultation Paper on ELTIF Regulation

The Association Française de la Gestion Financière (“AFG”, the French Association representing management companies) on 15 October 2015 published its response to ESMA’s consultation paper related to RTS under the ELTIF Regulation which was launched on 31 July 2015. Among others, AFG recommends that ESMA (i) improves the definition of ELTIF’s life-cycle and (ii) provide a simple definition of the eligible hedging derivatives. Though AFG points out that additional guideline would be desirable in order to widen the scope of eligible real estate projects within the framework of ELTIF, it stresses that such ELTIF Regulation is likely to support the development of closed-ended funds in France. 

AFG Publishes the Results of its Survey on the Use of Social Media by Management Companies

The AFG published the results of its survey on the use of social media by French management companies on 13 October 2015. About 75% of the consulted management companies include the use of social media in their communication strategies. It should be noted that 39% wish to have additional information on the industry practice as to the use of social media. The AFG will communicate these results to the AMF’s public consultation on this issue which was launched on 15 October 2015. 

Key Figures of French Assets Under Management 2014

The Autorité des Marchés Financiers (“AMF”) has published its yearly study on the French market of asset management. In its 2014 study, the AMF points outs that 2014 has seen the biggest increase of assets under management in the last decade (additional € 449 billion). Most of this increase (additional € 212 billion) is explained by the assets under management of French securitization funds and real estate funds (SCPIs) which are now encompassed by the AIFM Directive. The current total amount of assets managed by French management companies represents € 3,301 billion. The full study can be found on the AMF’s website.