On December 21, 2018, Dentons China Private Equity and Investment Fund practice group successfully held the "2018 Private Equity Investment Fund Risk Control and Compliance Roundtable" with a theme of "Changes and Trends" at the Parkview Speaker Corner, Beijing. Partners, risk control officers and in-house counsels from over 70 well-respected private equity fund management institutions, banks, insurance companies, FOFs and guidance funds gathered to discuss the significant changes in the private equity industry in 2018 and look into the future industry trends in 2019. A number of topics were discussed on the event, including the latest policy changes and impacts, the hot legal issues of concern to institutional investors, and compliant operations of private equity funds.
Li Shoushuang delivered the opening remarks, reviewing the achievements of Dentons China Private Equity and Investment Fund practice group in the past year and the team's efforts in promoting the development of private equity industry, and legislation and policies.
Afterwards, Yuan Yuan delivered a speech entitled "Changes in the Legal Landscape of RMB Fund Raising under the New Regulatory Framework". Ms. Yuan made a systematic introduction of the new regulations on asset management, as well as a series of supporting regulations successively issued by the regulatory authorities and industry self-regulatory organizations, and the changes in the fundraising of private equity funds caused by the rules. Her speech covered many hot issues, including state-owned assets, foreign capital, qualified investor conditions, taxation system, multi-layer nesting and"three types of shareholders", and predicted the possible trends and changes in fundraising in 2019.
Next was the thematic discussions and was divided into two parts. The theme of the first part was "Legal Considerations of Institutional Investors Investing in Private Equity Funds under the New Regulatory Environment", hosted by Zhou Jing. Meng Zhaohui from Beijing Municipal Engineering Consulting Investment Fund Management (manager of Beijing Development and Reform Commission guidance fund), Chen Leiwen from Xicheng Jinrui (manager of Beijing Xicheng District FOF), Wang Xue from ICBC Beijing Branch, Li Ziyi from Insurance Asset Management Association of China and individuals from some insurance institutions participated in the discussion as guests. Based on their rich industry qualifications and practical experience, the guests focused on the changes in the investment direction and team requirements of the guidance funds in recent years, the priorities of the bail-out funds and the risk control measures in the selection of enterprises, the opportunities and challenges faced by banks and their financial subsidiaries under the new regulations, and the main methods of insurance's participation in equity funds and the regulatory changes.
The theme of the second part was “Challenges and Compliance of Private Equity Management under the New Regulatory Environment”, chaired by Liu Xianlai. Heads of risk control and legal departments from five leading private equity fund management agencies participated as the guest speakers. As practitioners of the first line of fund compliance and risk control, the guests focused on the current private equity fund supervision system, compared the differences between the RMB fund and the US dollar fund, the funds backed by state fund and other funds in the compliance work, as well as the difficulties and confusions faced by fund managers in terms of compliance under the existing framework. They also shared valuable experience on the risk prevention in investment, the challenges faced by RMB funds in overseas investment, the preferential policies for venture capital funds, and the identification of state-owned fund.
After that, Liu Linsen conducted a keynote speech entitled “Latest Post-investment Management Issues and New Trends of Dispute Resolution”. Ms. Liu analyzed the judicial practice of the validity of the VAM clause, the judicial changes of the validity of the contract after the introduction of the new regulations, and the provisions of the investment transaction documents that can easily lead to disputes. She shared her practice experience in handling the cases and provided novel ideas for the risk prevention and control in the fund investment and post-management.
At the end of the conference, the industry veterans made bold predictions on the trend of 2019, and conducted in-depth exchanges. The team is very grateful to the support of many industry heavyweights, and looks forward to providing more excellent services and hosting many more exciting activities in the future.