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2 Oct 2009

Offshore Law Update: BVI Upgrades Annual Fund Returns Procedure

HedgeCo Archive - The British Virgin Islands Financial Services Commission this week announced a new electronic reporting system for filing annual fund returns, in a move which will facilitate its regulation and monitoring of the British Virgin Islands (“BVI”) funds industry while providing a significantly more efficient and secure environment for filing annual returns.

The new electronic reporting system supports submissions by segregated portfolio companies as well umbrella structures with improved formatting and the ability to save entries for later submission. The information obtained from the filing is consolidated and used for statistical purposes.

The deadline for filing is October 15, 2009 for the reporting period ending December 31, 2008, but any fund which has already submitted a hard copy of the return is not required to re-file. Rather, such funds may use the online application for the next reporting period ending December 31, 2009 whose filing deadline will be June 30, 2010.

Anyone requiring further information about the electronic filing system or annual returns which must be filed by BVI funds may contact Robert Briant, Managing Partner of Conyers Dill & Pearman’s BVI office.

New Zealand Hedge Fund Partners Offshore Investors With Local Clean Tech Experts

HedgeCo Archive - A new hedge fund is offering to bridge the distance barrier between New Zealand and the rest of the world. Milestone Capital has established the Rutherford Innovation Fund to raise capital and back innovative companies which need financial assistance and business skills to commercialise their ideas on the international stage.

“The Rutherford Innovation Fund provides offshore investors with an experienced local co-investment partner to bridge the geographic gap to New Zealand as these companies are not on the radar of international investors,” Milestone Capital principal Kenji Steven says.

The Rutherford Innovation Fund sees the best opportunities for investment as being those that benefit from the massive changes being driven by the growth of Clean Tech – products, services and technologies that provide solutions to urgent global problems around energy, water, carbon and pollution.

The fund is named after Ernest Rutherford, the Kiwi who was the first person to split the atom and the father of modern nuclear physics. It’s a portfolio of private equity companies which include algae fuel manufacturer Aquaflow Bionomic Corporation, carbon sequestration firm Carbonscape and ‘top five’ international climate change website Celsias.

“The key limiting factor in New Zealand is capital. For private companies investment capital is scarce so there is attractive pricing and little competition for deals. The capital markets are also under-developed so approximately 80% of the top 200 New Zealand companies are private,” Steven says. The fund is targeting a capital raising of NZ$50 million over the next two years.