Independent fund and corporate services provider the Aztec Group has established two Jersey Private Funds (JPFs), the first funds to be formed since the regime’s inception on 18 April 2017.
Introduced last month by the Jersey Financial Services Commission, the new JPF product has been designed to rationalise and consolidate Jersey’s private fund regimes for funds offered to up to 50 professional investors.
The Aztec Group worked closely with law firm Mourant Ozannes to establish the first new fund structures approved under the new regime. The first, a private equity fund, required a closed-ended limited partnership managed by its general partner company situated in Jersey. The second JPF set up by the group was a co-investment real estate fund investing in the UK private rented sector that also used a Jersey limited partnership.
Aztec Group has also converted three existing Very Private Funds to JPFs since the regime came into effect and has a number of applications for further JPFs in progress.
Simon King (pictured), director and private equity specialist at the Aztec Group, says: “We are delighted to have established the first new Jersey Private Funds. The new regime is a very welcome development as it will essentially streamline the historic private suite of fund products into a single, more effective, solution for clients where they can benefit from a flexible, efficient and swift regulatory application process. In this very competitive industry, it is imperative that Jersey remains a jurisdiction of choice for international fund managers and continued innovations in Jersey’s fund product offering like this are key to attracting business to the island.”
Ben Robins, partner at Mourant Ozannes, says: "In a buoyant fund raising market, the new JPF regime has quickly been seized on by existing and new clients alike as an effective, streamlined and proportionate product for privately offered alternative investment funds. The speed and ease with which these new launches were achieved – all within 48 hours of applying to the commission – has really underlined their effectiveness."
Aztec Group is one of the world’s largest independent providers of fund, corporate and depository services with over 650 employees operating across six international onshore and offshore locations.
