AMF consults on PE funds’ end of life

The Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) is conducting a consultation on the end of life of private equity funds, for retail investors.

The consultation follows a significant flow of claims to the AMF and case referrals to the AMF Ombudsman by retail investors, due to private equity funds regularly exceeding their initial end of life announcement.

The French regulator has proposed creating a framework, which will incorporate three stages of liquidation, (pre-liquidation, termination decision and liquidation) as a means of promoting better protection for retail investors.

Background

According to AMF, a large number of private equity fund’s lives are regularly exceeded, for various reasons. As a result, investors are impacted with regards to the information provided at fund launch and during its lifecycle, as well as problems caused by lengthy liquidation procedures.

In a bid to find solutions to these challenges, AMF’s board launched a working group to support the regulator with various legislative, regulatory and operational proposals. The group is chaired by AMF board member Muriel Faure, and includes various stakeholders, including retail investors, PE firms, auditing and legal professionals.

Consultation

Using feedback from the working group, AMF’s consultation paper has suggested 19 proposals which address the following issues:

• Strengthening the regulatory framework of liquidation operations
• Availability of financial resources, which is particularly key in situations where the asset manager might not be capable of performing liquidation operations itself
• Improved information for investors at fund inception and during the liquidation phase
• Strengthening AMF’s supervision with the establishment of a specific half-year report, regarding the liquidation status of funds that have exceeded their lifespan
• Series of measures to remove obstacles to liquidation that may have existed since the fund design stage
• Series of measures aimed at limiting situations, for example asset managers which may have lost contact with certain investors and might be incapable of paying them returns at liquidation
• Creation of a marketplace for special situations funds’ liquidation

Next steps

Responses to the consultation paper should be submitted to directiondelacommunication@amf-france.org by Friday 14 October 2022.