Successfully Launching A Hedge Fund In Europe: Practical Guidance For New Managers

This book provides a road map to setting up a hedge fund in Europe. The processes that need to take place are described, and the key decisions that have to be made are identified in it.

There are a number of important service providers that have to be appointed. This book not only tells you who they are but also gives you the questions to ask the potential providers to differentiate between them.

Chapter 1. The Launch Environment   (written by Simon Kerr of HFI)  1

Chapter 2. Managing The Launch Project    (by Peter Northcott of KB Assoc) 11

Chapter 3. Hedge Funds And Public Relations    (Henrietta Hirst of City Savvy)  43

Chapter 4. Regulatory Incubation With The Pioneer - Sturgeon Ventures   (Seonaid Mackenzie) 57

Chapter 5. Setting Up A Hedge Fund In Europe – The Auditor and Accountant’s Perspective   (Bernadette King & Melanie Pittas of haysmacintyre)  71

Chapter 6. Fund Administration For European Hedge Funds    (Peter Jakubicka of Circle Partners) 105

Chapter 7. Prime Brokerage For European Hedge Funds     (James Skeggs of SocGen Prime Services) 127

Chapter 8. Legal Services For European Hedge Funds  (Gus Black and Craig Borthwick of Dechert LLP)   153

Chapter 9. IT Services & Consultancy For Hedge Funds    (Tom Woollard of Edge Technology) 197

Chapter 10. Perspective Of An Experienced Hedge Fund COO    (Pseudonymous) 215

Chapter 11. New Managers From An Investor’s Perspective  (Anthony Lawler of GAM)   225

Chapter 12. Backers Of Early-Stage Hedge Funds  (Hedge Fund Insight)   239

The book contains guidance on the project management of getting a hedge fund to market from a European base.

Often a new hedge fund manage may have had limited exposure to services that are available to small hedge fund fund management companies. Should you engage a PR company, are you allowed to talk to the media, if you can how do you do it to your advantage? Is it worthwhile setting up your own regulated vehicle, or should you start out under a regulatory umbrella company? These are the kind of questions answered directly in the book.

Fund Administrators differ in what they can do for a hedge fund managers beyond calculating a NAV. Do you need risk measurement capability from a third party or not? What middle office services would complement your Portfolio Management System? Getting these high level questions right sets a new hedge fund firm off in the right way for the medium-to-long term.

The key service providers covered include lawyers and prime brokers who share their experience on the structural issues that have to be settled. There is a significant technological infrastructure required to set up a hedge fund in Europe - and the considerations behind the choices to be made are fully reflected.

This book takes you through the start up process from all sides, including the insights from a hedge fund staffer that has been through the process several times over. You can learn from his mistakes without having to make them yourself.

Funds cannot launch and prosper without investors. The last two chapters give the perspective of a seasoned investor in hedge funds and a list of investors that are prepared to commit to a hedge fund in it's early stages of development. The list has full contact details for the key decision makers.

Simon Kerr is the Publisher of Hedge Fund Insight. He is an experienced analyst and commentator on both financial markets and hedge funds. He was a first quartile money manager running portfolios for institutional investors and was a recognised authority in the use of derivatives. He has risk management expertise across fund formats and asset classes. He has been in the hedge fund industry since 1998 and has experience of many aspects: he has acted as a consultant, portfolio manager, fund director, marketer and COO in the hedge fund business. Simon has been a high-scoring trainer for Henley Business School since 2012. His first book on hedge funds was published by Informa in 1999.