The Simmons & Simmons financial services team in Frankfurt has supported a US alternative investment fund manager (AIFM) with the registration of a Cayman alternative investment fund (AIF).

This is likely to be the first successful registration of a non-EU AIF managed by a non-EU AIFM in Germany with the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin).
 
The registration covered a Cayman master-feeder hedge fund structure which made the registration process more complex compared to a non-feeder fund. The registration, from the time of the application to the approval by BaFin, took a total of three months.
 
Harald Glander, fund partner in Germany, says: “Some managers think that the German registration requirements for offshore funds cannot be met. The swift process of registering this structure proves that it remains possible to distribute offshore structures to professional investors in Germany.”