Brexit: More and more British asset managers seeking cooperation with German or Luxembourgish third party AIFMs

04. Feb 2019

A no-deal Brexit is becoming an increasingly likely scenario. For this reason, interest from British real estate fund providers in cooperating with German or Luxembourgish third-party real estate AIFMs is soaring. Such cooperation will give British fund providers the ability to enjoy EU passporting privileges, to initiate their own funds and to sell fund units throughout the EU even after Brexit. The model is as follows: The real estate asset manager is based in the United Kingdom, and the third-party AIFM is based in Germany, for example. The latter launches the fund in accordance with German law. As the AIFM is licensed in Germany – and thus in the EU – the fund units may be sold throughout the EU via passporting rules.

Michael Schneider, Managing Director of INTREAL, commented: “In the past few months, and especially since the beginning of this year, we have been receiving an increasing volume of enquiries from asset managers in the United Kingdom. The advantages of cooperating with INTREAL are obvious: The fund providers spare themselves the costs of founding and maintaining an AIFMD-licensed branch office in the EU, while they can still initiate their funds and sell fund units EU-wide.”

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