Notes from LPEA’s New Year Event (2015)

LPEA hosted its New Year’s Event in the evening of January 26th in Luxembourg to an audience of members and friends of the association. In addition to the annual meeting which every year gathers the association’s community over a networking event, this was also the occasion to celebrate LPEA’s 5^th anniversary and to update on the past and future initiatives of the association.

The event gathered many of the founding members and was hosted by Jérôme Wittamer, President of LPEA and Paul Junck, Managing Director, who invited the co-founder and former President Hans-Jürgen Schmitz on stage to cut the cake celebrating the first five years of the association.

The evening was nevertheless a moment to report on LPEA’s stand point and to update on the association’s latest developments and plans for the future.

Please find below a summary of the points addressed by Jérôme Wittamer during his speech:

LPEA’s Reason Being

• • LPEA is here to make sure GPs find in Luxembourg the best tools, the best ecosystem where to carry out their business.

• • For LPEA Executive Committee members and Technical Committee members this means going out of our ways to identify weaknesses and opportunities in the legal and regulatory framework and ecosystem to generate more competitiveness, define improvements, push those so they get implemented.

• • Another important aspect of LPEA’s activity is promotion. The association keeps actively marketing Luxembourg as THE hub for Private Equity (PE) in Europe.

• • LPEA’s success is based on the highly valuable combination formed between the business insights provided by its General Partners’ constituency (the investment managers) and the technical expertise of Service providers.

• • In 5 years members were able to propel the association to a level of visibility and credibility that makes LPEA THE expert circle for everything Private Equity related in Luxembourg.

 

 

Year in Review

• • In a nutshell, by most metrics there has been strong momentum in our industry in Luxembourg:
    • • The CSSF has received over 800 AIFM applications.
    • • Now most of the AIFMD implementation details have been ironed out.
    • • The Special Limited Partnership has had considerable success and is showing good traction.

• • At LPEA’s administration level:
    • • The association saw 25 new members joining.
    • • Luís Galveias, the new Marketing and Communication manager was hired.
    • • LPEA is now more tech savvy and has new and improved communication tools.
    • • Many members of the association joined the workgroup to develop LPEA’s strategic roadmap for the next 3 years.

• • A significative work was done at the policy advocacy level with:
    • • Meeting with authorities
    • • Meetings and inputs to Haut Comité de la Place Financière (HCPF)
    • • Meetings and inputs to CSSF GFIA
    • • Meetings and inputs to EVCA
    • • Meetings and inputs to ALFI
    • • Inputs to Chamber of Commerce

• • Promotion and communication was diverse, international and multiplatform with:
    • • Organisation of 5 international roadshows to showcase Luxembourg and its PE ecosystem in New York, Munich, London, Stockholm and Zurich.
    • • Participation in SuperReturn International and chairing the Private Equity Workshop of ALFI’s alternative investment fund conference.
    • • Participation in a number of breakfast conferences, 4 GP Clubs and multiple local Venture Capital events.
    • • Publication of two technical publications, the reference “Private Equity in Luxembourg” guide and the “Limited Partnership in Luxembourg – Q&A for practitioners”.
    • • Publication of two Capital Vs, LPEA’s proprietary magazine.
    • • 35% increase of visits to the website, e-newsletter subscribers, increased engagement through LinkedIn and creation of a Twitter account.
    • • Videos and articles available from different media sources.

LPEA’s key initiatives for 2015

Above and beyond the multiple objectives set for 2015, three key goals were mentioned:

• • Dialogue on three levels

Promote further exchange of knowledge and information between general partners, service providers, government, political constituencies and the CSSF. In a broader extent, also open the dialogue to other real economy players (eg. business, academia, innovation centres, trade associations, etc.) and foreign counterparts.

• • Thought Leadership

Further develop LPEA’s leadership on all Private Equity/Venture Capital related developments, namely by actively contributing and proposing new and improved policies for an attractive and dynamic investment framework. LPEA members’ participation through technical committees and the expertise these provide to the sector through publications, events or other initiatives was identified as a key area.

• • Position Luxembourg as the European PE/VC Hub

Luxembourg is an early adopter of the highest international standards. As demonstrated with UCITS, this has proven to be the country’s best tool to not only position itself at the forefront of the most competitive nations hosting PE/VC activities but also to showcase its compliance leadership vis-à-vis international regulations. It is an established fact that few jurisdictions, if any, can match the combination of advantages that Luxembourg offers. Few have reached a critical size of AIFMs allowing the regulator and professional services firms to reach a level of understanding and expertise necessary to deliver outstanding service. While we will always aim at improving and never accept the status quo, Luxembourg is clearly at the very edge. Therefore, we intend to carry on and further deploy our marketing efforts with a view to attracting new players to the market.

Calendar of events for 2015

• • LPEA International Roadshows
    • • Zurich (March)
    • • London (20-21/04; in partnership with ALFI)
    • • Stockholm (May)
    • • New York (2/06; in partnership with ALFI)
    • • Paris (September)
    • • New York (October; in partnership with ALFI)
    • • Frankfurt (November)

• • Other events to promote LPEA, the PE sector and Luxembourg as an European PE Hub.
    • • New Year’s Event (26/01)
    • • Booth at Super Return International (Berlin, 24-26/02)
    • • How to Start a Startup (March & April; in partnership with LuxInnovation, JEL, Chambre de Commerce and others)
    • • Conference on Transfer Pricing (19/03)
    • • Conference on PE & Insurance (April)
    • • GP Club Meetings (dates tbc)
    • • Open Lunches (dates tbc)

For additional information please contact LPEA’s Managing Director Paul Junck on
lpea-office@wordpress-701154-2364522.cloudwaysapps.com/ +352 407 878 922.