According to recent Ocorian research, growing expertise in alternative investment fund managers (AIFMs) is resulting in the continuous growth of the alternative investment funds (AIF) market in Europe.
This follows recent reports highlighting strong performances in Ireland and Luxembourg. PwC forecasted a 14.2 per cent yearly increase of compound growth for assets under management until 2025, while the Association of the Luxembourg Fund Industry cited the country’s funds as approximately €5.3 trillion.
Ocorian suggests that this growth is down to the countries’ ease of business, varied fund structure offerings and well-run fund services sectors.
The success of both jurisdictions has increased competition in the European AIF market, resulting in greater scrutiny around fund governance, putting administrative services under pressure. As a result, many alternative investment fund managers are turning to third-party management companies, Ocorian says.
Stephen Hickey, head of AIFM at Ocorion, says: “Luxembourg and Ireland are the locations of choice for AIFs wishing to distribute across Europe. The hope is the new Irish ILP structure will provide a real alternative AIF vehicle to the Luxembourg special limited partnership and provide investment managers and investors a degree of flexibility.
“As the alternative assets industry continues to evolve, sophisticated, specialised and experienced AIFMs are ideally placed to provide the operational efficiencies and governance managers need to remain competitive.”
