The rising trend of private capital investment is being well serviced in Guernsey due to the island’s flexibility to meet investors’ sophisticated requirements, sector experts agreed at the 2019 Guernsey Funds Forum.
In the decade following the global financial crisis, private wealth has doubled in nominal terms, and private capital has become a significant source of investment for fund managers, particularly in Guernsey’s specialist sector of private equity funds.
Research carried out by Guernsey Finance has shown that its importance is growing rapidly, particularly for smaller managers.
Panellists at a private capital session at the milestone 10th Funds Forum in London in May said enthusiasm for fund managers to tap into new pools of wealth had seen a rise in investment from family offices, high net worth individuals, private banking clients, and other non-institutional money, as private wealth globally rise towards levels double that of assets under management in the investment world.
New structures and solutions are becoming increasingly common to attract the particular demands of this market. Guernsey has the ability and track record to develop bespoke structures, including its increasingly-popular lightly-regulated Private Investment Fund, offering enhanced sophistication, diligence and co-investment opportunities, particularly appealing to smaller managers and private family offices.
“Guernsey has the flexibility to reflect investors’ sophisticated requirements, and does that very well,” said panellist David Williams, a partner at London law firm Simmons & Simmons.
Guernsey-based lawyer David Crosland, a partner with Carey Olsen, said that the island, a specialist alternative assets domicile, was “nimble, responsive, and in control of its own destiny”.
Dominic Wheatley (pictured), Chief Executive of Guernsey Finance, which organised the London conference, says: “Private capital as a source of funds for private equity, and the accompanying trend of growing complexity in structuring private capital arrangements, are driving factors for locational preference and this all plays to Guernsey’s strengths.
“Our leadership in private equity, private wealth and private funds and quality service is being recognised in this sector.”
Guernsey Finance hosts a follow-up seminar where it will reveal its research findings in London on Tuesday 2 July.
