German Hedge Fund Regulation
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer
Courtesy the Hedge Fund Association
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, the international law firm, has produced an English translation of the principal German legislation relating to investment funds, namely the Investment Act (Investmentgesetz) and the Investment Tax Act (Investmentsteuergesetz), both of which were contained in the Investment Modernisation Act (Investmentmodernisierungsgesetz) of 15 December 2003.
Subject to certain transitional provisions, the Investment Act and the Investment Tax Act entered into force on 1 January 2004.
The main purposes of the Investment Act and the Investment Tax Act are:
- to implement directives 2001/107/EC and 2001/108/EC of the European Parliament and Council of 21 January 2002 amending Council Directive 85/611/EEC of 20 November 1985 on the coordination of laws, regulations and administrative provisions relating to undertakings for collective investment in transferable securities (UCITS);
- to regulate hedge funds for the first time in Germany and introduce investment stock corporations with variable capital;
- to combine, reform and simplify the regulatory provisions of the former Act on Capital Investment Companies (Gesetz über Kapitalanlagegesellschaften) and the former Foreign Investment Funds Act (Auslandinvestment-Gesetz); and
- to consolidate in the Investment Tax Act the separate tax provisions for domestic and foreign funds contained in the Act on Capital Investment Companies and the Foreign Investment Funds Act.
If you would like to request a complimentary copy of the guide please contact Melissa Tan at melissa.tan@freshfields.com (telephone +44 20 7716 4668).
If you have a query on any of the issues raised by the guide, please contact Marietta Lienhard at marietta.lienhard@freshfields.com (telephone +49 69 27 30 82 46) for regulatory matters or Matthias Kuhn at matthias.kuhn@freshfields.com (telephone +49 69 27 30 82 05) for tax matters.
Entry Filed under: Legal & Regulatory Issues