Jesch and Aldinger on EU Venture Capital Funds in Law of Financial Instruments

Thomas A. Jesch, Counsel in the Frankfurt Office, together with Adrian Aldinger of Luxembourg’s Arendt & Medernach authored an article that appeared in the July 2012 edition of German monthly Law of Financial Instruments, dealing with “EU Venture Capital Funds”. It discusses the basics of the respective EU Draft Directive published in December 2011 and describes the registration and qualification requirements as well as the option of an EuVECA passport facilitating an EU-wide distribution of fund interests for interested sponsors. The author’s preliminary assessment of the Draft Directive, however, is rather sceptical: Taking into account the potential compliance costs under the scheme, few VC sponsors might choose to “opt-in”, even more so as pan-European fundraisings seem to be more the exception than the rule in these days.