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Partner, Head of BVI Corporate Practice
Partner, Head of Investment Funds and Regulatory & Risk Advisory (BVI)
Partner, Global Head of Investment Funds
Director, Head of Singapore office
Partner
Partner, Head of Regulatory & Risk Advisory (Asia)
Associate
BVI offers a number of advantages for the efficient and cost effective set up of both open-ended and closed-ended funds. This on-demand webinar walks you through the menu of BVI funds products and details the ins and outs of each. We also discuss BVI Approved Managers as a value-added solution.
The BVI Incubator Fund is a start-up fund for those managers who want to keep costs in line until they have a track record to attract sufficient subscriptions to make the funds viable for the long term. The fund may have:
A BVI Approved Fund is a low cost hedge fund vehicle which allows a manager to bring together a small number of investors. This fund is cost-effective and designed to avoid the regulatory burden when establishing a small fund. An approved fund may include:
Unlike the Incubator Fund, the Approved Fund has no term limit.
A Professional Fund is a mutual fund whose interests are made available only to professional investors and the initial investment of each investor (other than certain “exempted investors”) is not less than US$100,000.
A Private Fund is a mutual fund whose constitutional documents specify either that it will have no more than 50 investors or that the making of an invitation to subscribe is to be made on a “private basis” only.
This guide provides a brief overview of the British Virgin Islands (the “BVI”) Approved Investment Manager regime1 and its suitability and attractiveness for use with Separately Managed Account structures (“SMAs”).
This guide provides a brief overview of the Approved Investment Manager regime established under the Investment Business (Approved Managers) Regulations (the “Approved Manager Regulations”) enacted under the Securities and Investment Business Act (the “SIBA”) of the British Virgin Islands (the “BVI”).
Funds in the BVI may be incorporated as business companies or formed as partnerships or unit trusts.
Funds can be incorporated as an SPC. With an SPC, any asset linked to a particular portfolio held as a separate fund for that segregated portfolio, will not form part of the general assets of the SPC and will not be available to meet the liabilities of any other segregated portfolio. Once established, a segregated portfolio company constitutes a single legal entity; each segregated portfolio does not. The SPC can issue shares and declare dividends on its own account, as well as with respect to each individual segregated portfolio. As such, the SPC is a particularly useful vehicle for multi-class or umbrella funds which wish to offer different investment strategies to investors.
Unit trusts are suitable for a variety of investment structures, including the stand-alone trust and the umbrella trust. When properly structured, a unit trust is exempt from BVI income tax, estate tax, inheritance tax, succession tax, gift tax, or any other duty.
Our lawyers advise on fund formation and structuring in the British Virgin Islands, including constitutional and contractual documentation, incorporation, registered office and administration services, regulation and compliance, as well as restructuring, liquidation, insolvency and winding up of funds.
With offices in the major international financial centres of Hong Kong, London and Singapore, we are more than able to provide you with our responsive legal services. We are also well equipped to service the Middle East North Africa market, with lawyers who have thorough expertise and understanding of the region.
