The time to be allocating to a range of alternatives in size is now, not when the horse has bolted: Ireland RoundtableSign up here for our free Roundtable Scripts - get this unique intelligence by email as Opalesque publishes them: In 2014, net assets of Irish UCITS funds increased by 22% to EUR 1,274bn while net assets of non UCITS increased by 29% to EUR 387bn. Looking at industry statistics, that growth figure compares very strongly against other competing domiciles, with Ireland having the highest net sales of any European domicile in 2014. Ireland also accounts for 50% of the European domiliced ETF market. Irish Stock Exchange often first point of contact for US managers The Irish Stock Exchange deals with a lot of US managers that have a Cayman or other offshore offering at the moment. When they look at Europe, many of them focus on Ireland, and the Irish Stock Exchange tends to be a first point of contact for any questions they may have. Ireland was the first jurisdiction to have a regulated hedge fund, the first to launch a regulated loan origination fund vehicle, and its regulator was at the forefront in terms of issuing the guidance around AIFMD and accepting applications for approval. Practical matters such as the accessibility of the regulator, the fast track approval for AIFs and even things like direct flights from NY for board meetings are important factors when choosing a fund domicile. The Irish Stock Exchange launched a new initiative called the ISE Fund Hub which is made up of a series of rooms containing net asset value, performance analytics, document hosting and a profile area for each manager. The manager has the flexibility to choose what features he wishes to use. There are already hundreds of funds using the service which is currently available to professional investors at no cost. Even managers with offshore funds who may not be actively marketing these to EU investors can set up a profile with contact information and provide additional visibility on their ISE listed funds. This is an attractive proposition to managers. The ISE does not facilitate any investment into a listed fund, so any registered user still needs to pick up the phone and make a direct approach outside of the portal if interested in investing with that manager.” New Irish ICAV structure expected to give the island further boost There are over 13,000 people employed in the funds industry in Ireland, and 50% of the global hedge fund industry is serviced out of Ireland. The new Irish ICAV structure has already been used to redomicile offshore funds to onshore Europe. It is considered extremely tax efficient and specifically tailored to meet the needs of the global funds industry. The main advantage from a pure tax point of view is for US tax managers, where they can now “tick the box” for US taxation purposes. There are also a number of administrative and reporting changes which will appeal to managers. Umbrella funds can now have separate financial statements for each individual sub-fund whereas under the previous plc structure you would have to produce one big set of accounts with the full disclosures for all sub-funds. In the heart of Dublin you can also find a small but growing community of alternative investment managers, companies focusing on managed futures, currencies, global macro, and platform providers with great distribution power for European UCITS and AIF structures. Unfortunately, like in many other places at the moment as well, also those players need to strive for recognition, as despite of long and impressive track records not all investors are open to their value-add. The focus on proper portfolio construction, having uncorrelated return drivers to weather different market environments can be secondary to chasing returns for some less-sophisticated investors. Meanwhile, the time to be allocating to a range of alternatives in size is now, not when the horse has bolted. Investors have to embrace and use more alternatives, because using the traditional asset class approach is somewhat akin to fighting a nuclear war with bows and arrows. The writing is already on the wall: Liquidity in fixed income, even in the more liquid sovereign markets, will be a major problem during bouts of market volatility. It’s probably a better idea to prepare and diversify now.
The inaugural Opalesque Ireland Roundtable took place end of June 2015 on the historic trading floor of the Irish Stock Exchange with:
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