Malta a jurisdiction for Private Equity Funds

The MFSA is currently amending its legislative and regulatory framework in order to make Malta an efficient jurisdiction for structuring private equity funds.

To this end it has launched a consultation process on new Investment Services Rules specifically applicable to private equity funds whose objective is to generally invest in non-listed companies or issuers. This follows the conclusion of previous consultation process  on the amendment of the Tenth Schedule to the Companies Act which is applicable to partnerships en commandite established as collective investment schemes in order to make such vehicles workable for private equity funds.

The proposed rules are currently divided into seven sections covering general requirements, service providers, investment objectives, policies and restrictions, disclosure to investors, reporting requirements, and supplementary conditions for self-managed schemes and are applicable to schemes.

In terms of the said rules, it will be possible for private equity funds to be licenced either as Professional Investor Funds or as Alternative Investment Funds.

The Consultation process shall run until the 19th of December 2014, and any comments and feedback to the draft rules are to be addressed to the MFSA’s Securities and Markets Supervision Unit. Kindly forward any queries regarding this Consultation process here.