Wealth & Finance April 2016

Wealth & Finance International | April 2016

Rocking the World of Finance CEO of the Month

Jaime Ellertson, Chairman & CEO of Everbridge lifts the lid on his career background prior to becoming a CEO, and the main challenges he faces in his current role at the helm of the business.

We invited Kutak Rock LLP’s Chair of Alternative Investments, Marc Lieberman (center), to talk us through how the firm came to be such a superpower in the private equity, hedge fund and real estate legal industry.

Ones to Watch in Hedge Funds 2016

We spoke to Vik Mehrotra, Chief Investment Officer of Venus Capital, to find out more about their firm, and get his unique insight into how they consistently generate alpha while mitigating risks.

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Welcome to the April 2016 edition of Wealth & Finance magazine In this issue, we take a look at the latest news in the world of wealth and finance across the globe, including a new study by leading specialist lender, Amicus Finance Plc (“Amicus”), revealing that more than half (53%) of small business owners expect demand for alternative finance – including forms such as property finance, crowdsourcing, invoice finance and asset finance, to increase over the next two years while just 6% think it will decline.

Taking one of these areas, we have a special feature on Investing in Crowdfunding Projects by Lendified’s Kevin Clark to get their insight into the myriad of developments, including crowdfunding, in the fintech industry as well as the work of this a lending technology company.

In other news, estate agent, eMoov.co.uk, warns that should Tata’s Port Talbot steel works close its doors, the economic impact to the Port Talbot property market could be a 10% drop in the average house price over the next 12 months.

In the UK, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published the interim conclusions of their investment banking market study in April, finding that while many clients feel well served by primary capital market services, there were also some areas where improvements could be made to encourage competition.

Other features covering in this informative edition include Ones to Watch in Hedge Funds 2016, the 2016 Asia Pacific Legal Guide and an interview with Jaime Ellertson, Chairman & CEO Everbridge’s who was awarded CEO of the Month.

I hope you enjoy reading this edition.

Contents 4. News 12. Award for Innovation in Financial Law & Best for Alternative Investments - USA: Kutak Rock LLP 16. Ones to Watch in Hedge Funds 2016: Venus Capital Management, Inc. 20. Ones to Watch in Hedge Funds 2016: AppleTree Capital - Overcoming the Obstacles 24. Ones to Watch in Hedge Funds 2016: 24FX Global Advisors 26. Ones to watch in Hedge Funds 2016: Finanz Konzept AG 30. CEO of the Month: Everbridge 34. European Broker of the Year 2016 & Best for Long-Term Investments 2016: FXFINPRO Capital 38. Investing in Crowdfunding Projects 40. 2016 Asia Pacific Legal Guide: Thiru &Thiru 42. THe.MiS Attorneys-at-Law 44. 2016 Asia Pacific Legal Guide: Rosetini & Partners 46. New Consultation Announced on the Proposed Corporate Offence of Failing to Prevent the Facilitation of Tax Evasion 50. A Tale of Two Wallets 52. Brexit – Business Uncertainty and Working in the Pre-Brexit Environment 3

Wealth & Finance International | April 2016 | News

Mobile & Telephony Infrastructure Will Future-Proof Landlords’ Assets Telephony and mobile phone connections are typically an after-thought when leasing a property however with the rise of dependence on SIM-based equipment, Cluttons argues that workplaces should be let with a coverage rating, measuring connectivity within a property.

Mobile and internet connections are the fifth essential utility for the modern environment yet the most overlooked when leasing space. Given the fast-paced evolving nature of the sector, landlords who invest in excellent telephony infrastructure are likely to secure tenants for longer periods and potentially command higher rental values.

John Gravett, Cluttons head of TMT, explained, “Recent Ofcom reports show smartphones are the UK users’ prime device having overtaken laptops and we spend an average of two hours each day on our mobiles thanks to access to 4G. This clearly illustrates that mobile connections are central to modern life and the way we conduct business.

“When 81% of 13-18 year olds own a smart phone and 34% of them also own a tablet*, then landlords need to consider how this future workforce is likely to operate in a business environment in 10 years time. A building with poor reception will hinder this generation’s business activity, especially when you consider the rise in the role social media plays in attracting and retaining customers and clients.”

Cluttons believes connectivity will impact more on vacancy rates and rental levels in years to come, which is why it is campaigning for landlords to future-proof their buildings with the right infrastructure today.

the architecture and fabric of the building at no cost to the developer as well as ensuring telephony isn’t a forgotten utility.”

He added that the Northern Powerhouse, which is attracting huge commercial and residential property investment across Manchester, Leeds and Liverpool also provides a catalytic opportunity for telecommunication infrastructure upgrades and instalments.

Offices and residential are not the only buildings to benefit from telecoms infrastructure as Cluttons highlights that licence and leisure landlords, such as concert venues and football stadium owners, have a captive audience and can increase their customer experience by providing ‘interactive experiences’ in the form of texting, tweeting and Facebook or Instagram posting from venues.

Gravett said, “Apple Pay, where goods and services are paid for via iPhones, iPads or Apple Watches, was only introduced eight months ago but has already been widely adopted by UK retailers.

“However, this payment method is only possible in outlets that have adequate mobile signals. It’s a payment method that’s here to stay – and likely one day to replace contactless payment credit cards – so buildings need to upgrade or face loosing future revenues.

New developments are singled out as the greatest opportunity to installing this infrastructure, without any additional costs to landlords and being much easier than retrofitting buildings.

“The world is increasingly one market place, and it is very likely to do away with a watch/phone/laptop/wallet and become dependent on the mobile.”

Gravett continued, “More than six million square foot of office space is currently under development within the City of London with completion expected by 2018. This provides a great opportunity to ensure the right infrastructure is built into

Cluttons argue that the future of smartphone business interactivity is best illustrated in West African nations, most commerce is transacted via mobile phones whether it be paying an electricity bill, buying clothing or paying for beauty treatments.

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“Decade of change” for cash puts Modernisation at top of Agenda A “decade of change” is predicted for cash use across Europe by G4S, one of the largest cash solutions business on the continent.

Graham Levinsohn, G4S Regional CEO, commented on a “fundamental transition in the use of cash across Europe” which requires “root and branch reform” of how cash is processed by countries in Europe.

Leading a call to action Graham Levinsohn urged the industry to work with the banking sector, central banks and policy makers to create this modern lean cash cycle. Challenges outlined include: · Shortening the cash cycle: reducing participants, processes, resources and funding from till to bank; · Realising earlier value: ensuring cash value is credited earlier; · Reducing the cost of cash: minimising handling and processing costs for cash; · 21st century cash: better interface with electronic and digital payment methods 18 April 2016.

His comments follow the publication of a landmark report by the Group examining cash use across 28 European economies.

The report finds that the volume of cash transactions across Europe continues to increase, having previously doubled every ten years.

Concurrently the proportion of all payments made by cash has fallen, with 40% of payments across the EU now made by card, electronic and digital payments.

In addition: • The volume of cash in circulation has increased 11% per annum up to 2015 with cash now making up 60% of all payment transactions; • ATM withdrawals, which are a good indicator of cash spending, increased 14.6% between 2009- 2014, representing an increase in value of €2.188 bn; • In eight European countries, non-cash payments now make up a greater proportion of transactions than cash; • The total volume of non-cash payments has increased to 102.3 billion transactions.

Commenting on the report, Graham Levinsohn called on the cash industry to work together to modernise cash: “What we are experiencing is a fundamental transition in the use of cash across Europe. European consumers and businesses will continue to use cash as part of a multi-payment economy. But we need to modernise how they can use it.

“The cash supply chain is highly fragmented across Europe which creates chronic inefficiency. In the most extreme cases cash could be counted up to 17 times from till to bank. However even in less extreme examples, the same cash is handled and counted multiple times as it is transferred between parties in the cash cycle. This creates an unnecessary cost burden on businesses and banks alike.

“We must work together to drive root and branch reform by streamlining and simplifying the cash cycles of Europe, creating fewer transfers between actors and consequently less duplication of effort. Significant cost efficiencies can be driven through the cash cycle so that cash remains a cost-effective payment mechanism into the future.”

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Wealth & Finance International | April 2016 | News

Winckworth Sherwood Advise L&Q on £150m Wandsworth Town Centre Regeneration Law firm Winckworth Sherwood has advised L&Q on the purchase of a key development site at the heart of Wandsworth Town Centre.

Charlie Proddow said: “This is a keystone project for L&Q and for Wandsworth, and will breathe new life into this important town centre space.

We are delighted to have been able to play our part in successfully concluding negotiations for what proved to be a complex transaction.”

L&Q has purchased Garratt Place from Wandsworth Council and South Thames College and will create a community that will include 200 new homes, an improved public library, new shops and improved teaching facilities at South Thames College. The scheme has a combined development value of £150million.

Winckworth Sherwood is behind some of the largest regeneration and housing schemes in London, including Nine Elms, Battersea Power Station, Wembley Park, Imperial Wharf, and the Olympic Village. In 2015 the firm was responsible for the sale of over 4,000 homes with a combined value exceeding £1bn.

The Winckworth Sherwood team has advised L&Q on the structure of the acquisition, and its tax implications. The firm’s residential sales team will also advise on the sale of the new homes.

L&Q is a leading residential developer in London and the South East and the largest landlord in Greater London, owning and managing more than 72,000 homes. It is currently in merger talks with The Hyde Group and East Thames, with a view of creating the UK’s fourth largest house builder.

Jerome Geoghegan, Group Director of Development and Sales at L&Q said: “We are delighted to be playing our part in driving forward one of the largest urban renewal projects in London. Once completed, this landmark development site in Wandsworth will provide an exciting mixed used development offering high quality homes for people across a range of incomes.

The Winckworth Sherwood team was led by Real Estate partner Charlie Proddow, supported by senior associate Charlotte Coleman. Partner and head of Residential Sales Ruth Barnes will lead on the sale of the new homes.

“This development supports L&Q’s ambitious plans to develop a pipeline of a further 50,000 new homes within a decade to deliver communities that make the capital an even better place to live.”

Pinsent Masons acted for Wandsworth Council and Eversheds acted for South Thames College.

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Small Business Demand for Alternative Finance Continues to Soar According to a new study by leading specialist lender, Amicus Finance Plc (“Amicus”), more than half (53%) of small business owners expect demand for alternative finance – including forms such as property finance, crowdsourcing, invoice finance and asset finance, to increase over the next two years while just 6% think it will decline.

The findings showed that small firms predict demand for alternative finance will increase by an average of 28% over the next two years.

This represents an increase of 2% from last year’s survey2 where 26% forecasted growth. In 2015 the combined market activity for the UK online alternative finance industry grew to £3.2 billion, representing an 84% increase compared to the £1.74 billion in 20143.

“Small businesses are increasingly turning to specialist lenders who have the skills to understand their specific needs. Having built a strong business base from our property lending expertise we have significantly broadened our proposition into other areas of specialist lending. Our relationship-based approach resonates well in specialist lending markets that are poorly served by mainstream lenders.”

More than half (51%) of small and medium sized enterprise (SME) owners said they have used or considered using alternative finance, up from 42% in last year’s survey. The most popular option, considered by 47% of respondents, was again crowdsourcing finance, including peer-to-peer lending and crowdfunding. This was followed by cash flow / invoice finance (32%), property finance such as bridging loans and commercial mortgages (29%) and asset finance (24%), which covers areas such as plant and machinery and business equipment.

On a regional basis, more than two thirds (69%) of small business owners in the North West predict a rise in demand for alternative finance over the next two years, the largest portion in the UK. Business owners in the East Midlands and West Midlands were second and third with 67% and 62% respectively. Just over half (52%) of small business owners in London predicted a rise in demand for alternative finance. SME owners in the North East were the least enthusiastic about alternative finance with 29% anticipating an increase.

The research also revealed the specific areas that SME owners are targeting for investment over the next 12 months. Two in five (39%) SME owners will look to invest in IT equipment, and nearly one five (18%) in cars, spending on average £14,496 and £5,290 respectively. 13% of SME owners said they would invest in telecoms equipment (£5,368) and 12% in plant and machinery (£7,426). One in ten (11%) plan to buy commercial vehicles, spending on average £11,163.

John Jenkins, CEO of Amicus commented: “This research shows that the business finance landscape continues to change. Demand for alternative finance is set to go from strength to strength over the coming years as mainstream lenders struggle to evolve to adequately support a thriving small business community.

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Wealth & Finance International | April 2016 | News

UK Millennials Embrace Robo -Advice more than Global Peers UK millennials are embracing robo-advice more enthusiastically than their counterparts around the world, placing almost as much trust in the online channel as face-to-face advice according to Legg Mason Global Asset Management’s 2016 Global Investment Study.

The study surveyed more than 1,000 investors aged between 18 and 39, young UK investors are the keenest globally on online advice solutions.

Adam Gent, Head of UK Sales, Legg Mason Global Asset Management said: “Robo-advice remains a relatively new concept in the UK compared to the US, where it is more established, but the levels of support for this new advice channel suggests it is far more than a passing fad.

In total, 85% of UK-based millennials in the survey said they were comfortable with robo-advice, while 80% said they would trust their advice, ahead of all other investors around the world (except US Millennials – 82%). On average, 59% of millennials globally expressed comfort with robo-advice, with 63% trusting it; within Europe, 70% were comfortable with robo-advice, with 65% trusting it.

“Indeed, with such trust being placed in online advice by younger investors, many of whom will have grown up with the internet, it would appear the future looks bright for robo-advisers as they seek to establish footholds in the UK advice market.”

Overall, professional financial advisers scored more highly among UK millennials (with 91% feeling comfortable with their financial adviser, and 88% having trust in them), although the narrow gap between the different channels shows the extent to which robo-advice is taking off among the younger generation.

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Czech Republic Approves New Gambling bill to Allow Foreign Based Operators to Obtain Gambling License The Chamber of Deputies of the Czech parliament has approved new gambling legislation which will completely overhaul the existing Gambling Act which dates from 1990. The new legislation will allow foreign based operators to obtain gambling licenses in the Czech Republic - something which has not been previously possible.

According to Robert Skalina, a senior advisor of WH Partners based in Prague, the new legislation which consists of three separate gambling related bills still needs to be considered by the Senate of the Czech parliament and be signed by the Czech President. However, it is expected to come into full force on 1 January 2017, exactly a year later than originally planned.

The new Gambling Bill also introduces responsible gaming practices and the operators will be required to offer and enable certain self-restricting measures to their customers depending on the type of game.

Furthermore, a register of individuals barred from the participation in gambling shall be created and administered by the Ministry of Finance.

Gambling operators will be required to ensure that an individual entered in the Register will not be allowed to participate in gambling.

It has been prepared by the Ministry of Finance which is the country’s gambling regulator. It fully regulates online and land based gambling in all its forms including sports betting, lotteries, casino, bingo and slot machines.

A tax rate of 23 percent of gross gaming revenue (calculated as deposits not returned to the customers minus the paid out winnings) will apply to all gambling business apart from so called ‘technical games’ such as slot machines and electromechanical games, which will be subject to tax rate of 35 percent of gross gaming revenue.

Operators targeting individual resident in the Czech Republic will be required to obtain a license issued by the Ministry of Finance. For the first time, foreign operators based in another EU Member State or in EEA country will be allowed to obtain licenses and these will be issued for a maximum period of six years. The applicant for licence will be obliged to provide a surety for each gambling type and for each online game type either by way of depositing funds to a special account of the Ministry of Finance or by way of a bank guarantee that will be accepted by the Ministry of Finance. The size of surety will depend on the type of gambling product offered and will be between CZK 5,000,000 (approximately €185,000 at the current exchange rate) and CZK 50,000,000 (approximately €1,850,000 at the current exchange rate).

The new legislation envisages that the Ministry of Finance will create and maintain a list of webpages with unauthorised online games.

Internet connection providers in the territory of the Czech Republic will be obliged to block webpages included in the List and payment service providers will be forbidden to execute payment transactions to or from any payment accounts included in the List.

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Wealth & Finance International | April 2016 | News

Tata Port Talbot: Closure Could See A 10% Fall in Local Property Prices Leading online estate agent, eMoov.co.uk, warns that should Tata’s Port Talbot steel works close its doors, the economic impact to the Port Talbot property market could be a 10% drop in the average house price over the next 12 months.

Port Talbot town is home to over 37,000 people, 11% (4,104) of which work at Port Talbot’s Tata steelworks - the largest of its kind in the UK.

Founder and CEO of eMoov.co.uk, Russell Quirk, commented: “The importance of the decision at hand impacts far more than property prices in Port Talbot, however, the first signs of economic decline are often an increase in unemployment rates and the resulting drop in property values.

It has been estimated that £2.5bn of investment is needed to turn Port Talbot’s steelworks into a profitable producer of high-grade steel and there is still hope a buyer will be found in time to save the site.

“When the local economy of an area relies so heavily on one specific industry to survive, the consequences of said industry disappearing all together can be catastrophic to the community.

However, as the primary source of employment and a driving factor behind Port Talbot’s economy, the closure of the plant could have grave implications on the Port Talbot property market and the local economy as a whole.

“We’ve seen a similar decline over the last 18 months or so in Aberdeen, where the slump in oil prices has had a huge impact on the economy and property market in particular. Property demand in Aberdeen over this time frame has been almost non-existent and as a result, the average house price has dropped by £11,000. However, the up and down nature of the oil market means Aberdeen has seen a slight uplift in demand during the start of 2016 and so things could be turning around.

It’s clear that the future security of the plant has a knock on effect to the Port Talbot property market and since Tata completed a deal to acquire the plant from Corus in 2007, the average house price in the area has increased by more than £10,000. However, at £103,000, it’s already considerably lower than the UK average and it would seem the future uncertainty of Port Talbot’s future in the steel industry is already having an impact. Prices in the last three months alone have already dropped by as much as £4,000 and, if a deal isn’t reached, this downward spiral could continue.

“Unfortunately, there will be no such hope for those in Port Talbot should the steelworks shut and, although the area does have other economic outputs, the loss of Port Talbot’s economic cornerstone will be extremely hard, potentially impossible to overcome.”

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Real Estate Attracting Investors Despite Low Income Yield New York – Investors’ strong appetite to acquire real estate assets in choice markets is driving prices to levels not in line with the fundamentals, MSCI data from 12th April shows.

Motivated to leverage because of the low interest rate environment, concerned by the volatility in the equities markets, and comforted by the relative profitability in property assets; real estate, particularly in several gateway markets around the world, continues to attract global investors.

Increasingly, investors have a global outlook, as supposed to domestic.

Risks, however, cast a shadow – though not fully noticed – over the bricks and mortar.

“There has been an especially benign profitable environment in real estate assets,” Simon Fairchild, Executive Director, MSCI, said at the recent MSCI U.S. Real Estate Investment Conference.

Much of the recent total return in real estate is due to current capital value growth, a scenario similar to the period right before the global financial crisis. According to MSCI data, in 2000 and 2001, global property total return was mainly driven by income return. This helped to offset negative capital value growth. However, beginning in 2005, capital value growth became the major driver to total return; and this environment lasted until 2008.

Since 2010, when negative returns in real estate investment reversed to positive returns, the contribution of income return to total return has steadily declined; and healthy capital growth has contributed to rising total return.

Normally, as real estate yield falls, the spread over the bond yield gets squeezed. This time, however, has been different. Bond yields have remained relative low as a result of current monetary policies, and real estate yields, too, are close to historic low levels.

“It’s a mixed thing, at one level real estate still looks very attractive despite high prices and low income yields,” said Fairchild. “The spreads would indicate that relative to other asset classes, real estate looks very good. However, when you look at the fundamentals questions arise.”

He continued: “A critical factor to be mindful of is that capital growth is by far the most volatile part of the annual return to real estate assets.

Investors interested in the long-term return on a real estate asset, however, would plan on winning 80% of their performance from the income return portion - mostly coming from rents. So investors should focus their energy on ensuring the security of their income.”

Real estate attracts investors during volatility and uncertainty because it remains resilient when other asset classes decline. However, it is not totally immune to risks, Fairchild said. “Real estate is most susceptible to external shocks when either pricing of assets becomes aggressive or there is a glut of new supply coming onto the market.”

Cyclical Business Speaking at the MSCI conference, Joe Azelby, Managing Director, J.P. Morgan Asset Management – Global Real Assets, said the quick recovery in real estate investments after the financial crisis must not inhibit investors from remembering the fundamental nature of investment.

“Even though we’ve been in the rocket ship since 2009, we must be careful,” Azelby said. “Every couple of years, real estate punches you in the face, it’s a cyclical business.” He advised: “If you think the punch is coming, reduce leverage.”

Real Assets Real estate’s most basic attractiveness to investors, large and small, has to do with it being ‘real.’ Azelby said during his keynote address at the MSCI conference that there is a broad class of real assets. “Think beyond real estate, real estate is part of real assets,” he said.

Other classes of real assets would include timber, farmland, and most importantly, infrastructure. “Adding real assets to your portfolio would increase total return and reduce volatility,” he added.

He presented data from J.P. Morgan Asset Management showing that several classes of real assets outperform bonds, equities and real estate investment trusts (REITs).

Global Report In 2015, Ireland maintained its global position delivering the highest total return, 25%; followed by Spain at 15.3%. Both property markets, each with a history of volatility, enjoyed exceptional performance in 2015.

The other hot markets are Sweden at 14.1% total return; Australia, 14%; South Africa, 13.5%; United Kingdom, 13.1%; and United States and Portugal at 12.1%.

MSCI measures a quarter of the world’s investment in real estate. The total value of the measured assets stood at $1.8 trillion across 33 countries and 79,735 assets.

A new phenomenon since 2010 is that a significant portion of capital flow into real estate is cross border.

A panel discussion at the MSCI conference estimated that 40% of investors in the US Real estate market are international investors; and that in the last year the US market has replaced Europe as the top choice for international investors looking for a safe haven.

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Wealth & Finance International | April 2016

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Award for Innovation in Financial Law & Best for Alternative Investments - USA Kutak Rock LLP is one of America’s premiere finance, securities and investment law firms.

We invited the firm’s Chair of Alternative Investments, Marc Lieberman, to talk us through how the firm came to be such a superpower in the private equity, hedge fund and real estate legal industry.

Marc, tell us a bit about Kutak Rock’s history: Lieberman: As one of America’s first national law firms, Kutak Rock has been serving America’s investment community for more than 50 years.

One of the firm’s founders, Robert Kutak, created the Kutak Commission, the first of its kind to develop a national code for lawyers’ ethics.

members are also Board Certified Real Estate Specialists, and as such, are recognized as having special expertise with complex real estate transactions.

The entire Kutak Rock Alternative Investment Team is highly skilled and recognized as one of the pre-eminent investment lawyer groups in the business by their clients, many of whom have provided the firm with glowing endorsements. Being recognized as superior in the profession enables our Team to secure terms not otherwise capable of being secured by other lawyers whose credibility and experience might be questioned.

With over 500 lawyers in more than 17 U.S. states, Kutak Rock has represented nearly every major investment bank and governmental unit in the United States, providing innovative and intensely responsive service to its finance and investment clientele for more over half a century.

The quality of our service and the depth of our expertise have led us to represent clients in nearly every aspect of the finance and investment space. However the firm is especially renowned for its representation of investors in the private markets, and in particular, in the private equity, venture capital, hedge fund, real estate, investment management and public finance fields.

Collectively the Team comprises well over 100 years’ experience negotiating and documenting deals. They have documented nearly every aspect of the investable spectrum, including management agreements, direct and indirect real estate, hedge and private equity investments and derivatives contracts. The Team is also very experienced in negotiating and documenting international transactions throughout Europe, the Caribbean, and Asia.

Kutak Rock has over 100 lawyers dedicated to documenting real estate deals, and the firm has an entire team of highly-experienced lawyers who represent institutional investors in private equity, venture capital, and hedge fund transactions. In the past five years alone, the firm’s Alternative Investments Team has documented over $3 billion in transactions.

How does your team stay abreast of the fast paced development of the law?

Lieberman: As you say, the legal industry is a fast paced market and this experience counts for nothing if staff are not supported in their professional development. As such our lawyers stay ahead of the curve when it comes to legal developments through a multitude of hours spent in continuing legal education. Firm lawyers regularly design and present educational programs and we make sure we have access to the latest electronic data bases and periodicals and government announcements and releases.

Who are the lawyers that staff your alternative investments team?

Lieberman: Our highly dedicated and experienced Alternative Investments Team is comprised of lawyers from every facet of the profession (both former large and boutique firm practitioners, as well as those with private and governmental institutional experience) and this enables them to not only know what their clients expect but also to understand what issuers expect and deem to be “market” terms.

Does Kutak Rock participate in the development of the law?

Lieberman: Kutak lawyers regularly assist government officials to design new legislation and address existing legislation that has become ambiguous or outmoded. For example the firm’s lawyers were instrumental in obtaining clarification from the SEC on whether certain governmental officials were required to register as investment advisors, and Kutak lawyers are currently working with investor organizations and government officials to make issuer subscriptions more transparent. Our dedication to public service is a bedrock precept among Kutak lawyers, and every one of the firm’s lawyers is encouraged to dedicate a substantial amount of their time to efforts which improve the profession and the lives of our clients.

I am the leader of the Alternative Investments Team, and am both AV rated by Martindale Hubbell, the international lawyer rating service, as well as designated as a SuperLawyer®. Other Team members enjoy similar ratings. An AV rated lawyer is a lawyer with the highest rating

by Martindale, one who rates 5 out of 5 in the categories of knowledge, integrity, honesty, forthrightness and ethics. People designated as SuperLawyers® have been rated as having a skill level among the top 5% of their peers, and I and some of my team members have also been designated by Best Lawyers in America® as having skills which place them in the top 4% of lawyers. I and several of my other Team

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Alongside this, as a practice we are always refining our negotiating techniques and terms and in response both to market forces as well as new legislation or regulation or client requests. Nothing is static in our business and therefore the firm has to adapt in order to stay ahead of the competition.

investors who expect value for their dollar and refuse to pay the exorbitant rates demanded by the coastal or international law firms.

Ultimately the financial markets are under constant strain from the many stakeholders which comprise them, and we believe that efforts to lobby the government for more regulation will only increase regardless of the outcome of the current U.S. election cycle. Thus, we expect much more regulation from both the SEC and IRS to further define the nature and scope of Dodd Frank, and we also anticipate more pronouncements from the SEC on private fund disclosures, at a minimum.

The word on the street is that Kutak Rock is an especially nice firm to work for. Is that true?

Lieberman: The experience and dedication of all of our staff has helped bring clients into the firm, and ultimately driven our success, and therefore we work hard to cultivate a supportive and engaging environment for our employees. Kutak Rock is well recognized as one of the most pleasant national law firms to work for. The firm has created an environment of respect, comradery and care almost unmatched among its peers.

Kutak Rock is also renowned for its modest fees—how can the firm charge rates one-third lower than its peers and still deliver quality service?

Lieberman: One major challenge our clients are facing is that they are increasingly becoming sensitive to upward pressure on lawyers’ fees, and therefore Kutak Rock has continued to benefit from such fee sensitivity. Our firm’s rates are far below those of our peers, in part due to our comparatively low overhead.

As a result, our personnel turnover rate is far lower than our competitors. The firm is quite diverse, employing a far higher percentage of women partners than almost every other law firm of its size.

This is due to Kutak’s geographic footprint which focuses primarily on non-money centre cities across the U.S. and our back office operations that are centralised in the Midwestern U.S., where operating costs are far lower than the coasts. This advantage enables Kutak Rock to set fees a full third lower than its peers, but with no sacrifice to quality of service, a fact to which all of our clients can attest. Further, to enable our clients to better manage their legal budgets, we offer to work for flat or capped fees, and a growing number of our clients have taken advantage of these alternative fee arrangements to bring certainty to their strained legal budgets.

The firm’s collegial atmosphere aids greatly in providing an environment for its attorneys to reach creative solutions utilizing areas of practice expertise beyond that of the Alternative Investment Team. Our interdisciplinary approach to problem solving allows us to borrow from other areas of practice, whether that might be public finance, regulatory law, litigation or a host of other legal areas. Accordingly, while we attempt initially to meet specific requirements with “tried and true” approaches, when those are unable to be applied, our attorneys reach out across practice groups and geography to find optimal solutions.

This caring attitude carries over to its clients, whom the firm treats as family rather than just “clients.” Thus, Kutak Rock endeavours to respond to client inquiries instantly, not in days, and to always place client interests above the interests of the firm or our lawyers. It is for that reason that many of our clients have retained us for decades.

Despite this challenge the firm’s long and unblemished experience, coupled with the fact that its fees are one third lower than its competitors means that clients ought to conclude that their best choice for documenting investment transactions is Kutak Rock. The firm documents between $60 million and $300 million of transactions every month for institutional clients who have come to conclude that Kutak Rock is the best alternative investment law firm for their needs.

How do you assist clients to adapt to the always changing financial markets?

Lieberman: Working closely with our clients has provided the firm with a unique and fascinating insight into the U.S. investment market. The environment for institutional investors at the present time is particularly challenging from a number of perspectives, as the low interest rate environment has propelled most institutional investors to seek yield in the private debt markets, but the overwhelming number of funds proposing to exploit those markets makes it difficult for investors to choose which funds will be among those reaching the top quartile in investment returns.

All existing clients of Kutak Rock will tell you a similar story about the lawyers with whom they work; that Kutak lawyers really care, and that caring translates into excellent and dedicated service which at the prices charged, simply have no comparison in the market.

What does the future bode for your firm?

Lieberman: Looking to the future, the firm will expand to have more offices throughout the U.S as new opportunities present themselves.

It is also highly likely that we will strengthen our relationships with firms in Canada and throughout the Americas and abroad and will add numerous lawyers to further deepen our ability to fully serve our clients’ legal needs. The firm is working with securities regulators to assist in the effort to make issuers fully disclose their fees and conflicts to better assure our clients that there will be no surprises in their returns and that effort will continue for the foreseeable future.

The same concerns over return are evident within equity investing: while some would say the greatest opportunities are now past us, the ingenuity of managers to find new ways to exploit the equity markets seem boundless, but the plethora of funds touting new strategies and opportunities makes it difficult for investors to separate the wheat from the chaff in choosing top quartile funds. As more money chases established top quartile funds, negotiating favourable terms with those funds has become more difficult. While law firms are not in the business of selecting one fund over another, it is especially important to choose a law firm which is sufficiently well-experienced in dealing with top quartile funds to know when to push the envelope on allegedly “market” terms.

Kutak Rock is such a law firm, and is especially well-suited to represent

Company: Kutak Rock LLP Name: Marc R. Lieberman Email: Marc.lieberman@Kutakrock.com Web Address: www.Kutakrock.com Address: 8601 N. Scottsdale Road, Suite 300 Scottsdale, Arizona 85253 USA Telephone: (480) 429-7103 (Direct)

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Ones to Watch in Hedge Funds 2016 Founded in 1994, Venus Capital is an institutional-focused India-dedicated firm, which is based in Boston with affiliated offices in London and New Delhi. We spoke to Vik Mehrotra, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer of Venus, to find out more about their firm, and get his unique insight into how they consistently generate alpha while mitigating risks.

who they hired in July 2015, comes from the largest private bank in India and handled a credit portfolio of $2B during that time. The company’s board selects key people like the analysts, compliance and legal, while many operational hires are left to the CEO to decide. Similarly, a high level of research and analysis is undertaken when deciding whether to work with a client. “For us, lending is always about the behaviour of the client, especially during trying circumstances and the intentions at the time of borrowing. Moreover, no balance sheet can provide the whole story about a particular client. Hence, we have developed the network of people in the financial and banking community, who are able to obtain the necessary information to verify the credibility of the borrower.”

At Venus Capital, their firm focuses on well collateralized direct lending to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in India with low loan to values and other safeguards to help protect the return of capital. Among their diverse range of clients include corporate pension funds, family offices and sovereign funds in US and Europe. Throughout their time, the company has advised private funds invested in a variety of asset classes focused on India including its current offering of a direct lending fund.

Today, Venus Capital remains at the forefront of sourcing, developing and executing different approaches for investors.

“The firm runs the Venus India Structured Finance Fund, which has invested through a tax efficient structure through Mauritius, into an operating company in India that makes loans to SMEs,” says Mehrotra. “We manage investment risks by making all decisions through a four member investment committee, which has to approve loans on a unanimous basis.”

In terms of the ethos of Venus Capital, corporate social responsibility is of paramount importance to the company, where they are heavily involved with a number of organisations dedicated to developing communities and improving the lives of vulnerable people. “We firmly believe in giving back to the community in which we live and work, and take great pride in helping a highly diverse range of charitable organizations,” says Mehrotra. “For example, we support IIMPACT, which provides educational opportunities to girls aged 6 to 14 years from socially and economically disadvantaged communities in India who traditionally have had no access to schooling. Their aim is to break the cycle of illiteracy that girls from such communities are mired in. This is done through local community based learning centers where they are provided meaningful and stimulating education to guide their entry into formal schooling. These are just one of the many organisations that Venus Capital takes tremendous pride in sponsoring.”

When asked about how their company has risen from the ranks to become leaders in their industry, Mehrotra believes that this is primarily due to the long-standing relationships they have built. “Since our inception over 20 years ago, we have developed a relationship-based ecosystem that includes brokers, analysts, fund managers and independent investors – all of whom are invaluable in assisting us in identifying, sourcing, and analysing investment opportunities,” says Mehrotra. “A combination of unique insight and application of sound ideas helps Venus Capital in capitalizing upon the dynamic growth in India and related emerging markets.”

It is this desire to build and maintain relationships that is at the heart of everything Venus Capital do, and has been a key contributor to their investment strategy. As Mehrotra outlines: “Our biggest asset is our deep network of on-the-ground contacts who constantly work with us in assessing and evaluating both risk and opportunities. Local execution is the key. Though we have a global presence, it is the local intelligence to judge the creditworthiness and intention of a borrower that matters the most. We have developed a network of relationships that gets us the qualitative information on a borrower to make the right decision.”

As a company immersed in the Indian market, there are number of challenges and opportunities that are specific to their region. “From our experience, it is always important to keep the costs low for a borrower,” says Mehrotra. “With the Indian government’s risk-free rate for a ten-year treasury currently running at around 8%, a small and medium enterprise borrower ends up borrowing at 16.5% approximately. As a result, it is important to have low cost funds and still make a good spread over it.

As for their team, Venus Capital has a very selective process when it comes to choosing their staff. The CEO of Venus India Asset Finance,

“As mentioned earlier, our collaborative approach helps keep Venus up to date with the latest local information,” added Mehrotra. “Our

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management and analysts stay ahead of emerging trends in the industry by operating customised technology to monitor interest and principal payments. Furthermore, we subscribe to industry and economic databases and services, such as Bloomberg, for collecting quantitative data. The most important thing is to collect qualitative data to know the intention of the borrower, in order to stay ahead of the market. The key is to create innovative customized solutions in an efficient, fast and nimble manner.”

In looking closer at their investment strategy, Mehrotra believes that there are a number of aspects which help them differentiate themselves from their peers, particularly in the level of care and consideration that goes into their strategy. “We feel our approach to investing in India through direct lending is a prudent one, particularly when you consider that our typical loan has a loan to value ratio of 33-40%. If an investor has the potential to achieve returns approximating those of a private equity investment with risks more reflective of a senior secured lender, why would the investor accept the increased risk of private equity investment?”

In spite of their success, Venus has had to overcome a number of obstacles to reach the heights that they have achieved today. When asked about their biggest challenge at present, Mehrotra believes that this is the appreciation of the USD against emerging market currencies.

“Although the Indian Rupee has fared better against GBP and the Euro, it has declined slightly against the USD in last 12 months,” Mehrotra explains. “The Indian Rupee has done relatively well compared with other emerging market currencies. In the short term, it is a function of money flows into India but commodity deflation is helping Indian currency as import bill has gone down. Venus occasionally hedges against the decline in Indian Rupee, if macro fundamentals are looking bad and its models predict a slowdown of investment flows into the country.

“However despite these challenges there are a number of opportunities inherent in working in this market,” added Mehrotra. “The opportunity to be a shadow lender in India emerges from the fact that there is a tremendous need for growth capital and commercial banks are restricted in many ways to fulfil that need. Banks are not nimble and flexible enough to understand the needs of the small and medium enterprise borrower. After the credit crises of 2008, they have mostly focused on the larger borrowers, leaving opportunities to work with smaller borrowers. This asset class offers a better risk adjusted return in India.

Eventually, the plan is to take the operating company public in India, giving equity investors an exit, assuming favourable operating results, market conditions, and other contingencies, of course.”

Looking further ahead into 2016 and beyond, Mehrotra believes that their company will continue to ride the waves of success. “There are a number of areas into which Venus can grow, and will provide us with a fresh set of opportunities. We are currently evaluating on whether we should enter the housing finance and purchase of non-performing assets business in India. Furthermore, banks are being told by central banker to clean up their balance sheets and both of these areas have good opportunities which will keep Venus busy for the foreseeable future.”

Company: Venus Capital Management, Inc. Name: Vik Mehrotra Email: vikm@venuscapital.com Web Address: www.venuscapital.com Address: 99 Summer Street, Suite M100, Boston, MA 02110 Telephone: +1-617-423-1901

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Ones to Watch in Hedge Funds 2016

AppleTree Capital – Overcoming the Obstacles AppleTree Capital faced the ultimate crisis in 2011, suffering a -34.17% annual return. While most investment managers would have cut their losses and shut down the fund, the team at AppleTree spent two years earning back money for their investors. This is a testament to the commitment they show to their clients. We spoke to Michael Nicoletos, Managing Director at AppleTree Capital, to find out more.

In general, most hedge fund managers tend to shy away from speaking about their negative results. However, AppleTree Capital believes that this negative experience at the beginning of their journey made them learn their lessons swiftly and at an early stage, helping them produce consistently positive returns ever since.

I think we – at AppleTree – have exemplified this to our investors: not only have we outperformed our benchmarks (this is including the losses during the first 2 years), but we have also demonstrated that we will always be thoroughly transparent in whatever we do, and fully reliable whenever they need us.”

“2011 was a disaster,” says Nicoletos. “Of course, like most hedge fund managers, the first thing that came to our minds was to give up and do something else. But we simply could not do that to our investors. We decided to liquidate the fund, take one month off to clear our minds, and then come back to see what we were doing wrong. When we returned, we reassessed everything: our processes, the way we looked at markets, even the way we positioned our trades. This reassessment, together with hard work, soon bore fruit, as we managed to recoup our losses in just two years. I think this shows the level of commitment we have towards our investors. It is this high level of dedication that lies at the heart of everything we do.”

Apace with their efforts to make their investors’ money back, AppleTree decided to fundamentally change the fund’s investment philosophy, in order to ensure that a crisis like the one that hit them in the beginning would never occur again. “When we lost this much money, we completely changed our mentality” says Nicoletos. “First, we decided to focus on the macro-level aspects of the global economy, in order to get a bigger and more complete picture of the financial landscape.

Questioning our ideas on a daily basis and identifying any prevalent behavioural fallacies in finance (both personal, and across the industry) became the key ingredient of our investment approach. As a result, we started positioning our investments a lot better, while also improving the efficacy of our hedging methodology. Our consistent positive results since then speak for themselves.”

“Our investors know that we will not sink, no matter how rough the sea is,” Nicoletos adds. “We care about them, and it’s not just about making money and getting returns. Of course, this is the nature of the business that we are in, but it is also much more than that: it is about trust, dedication, and perseverance.”

“When it comes to emerging markets, we always have our eyes set on the bigger picture. For our long/short equity fund, which trades primarily in Eastern and South-Eastern Europe, we first take a top down approach in terms of the global macro situation: we look at areas such as China, Europe, and the US, we look at commodities, but we also look at central banks, the flow of funds, political changes, and any other broad systemic factors. After having solidified our global macro-level understanding, we then look at each country we invest in separately. Once we identify the drivers that will benefit (or hamper) specific countries, we dive deeper and use a bottom up approach to look at key fundamentals.

“Across the industry, there has been a lot of talk lately about hedge fund managers underperforming and not deserving the fees they earn.

At face value, this is because many passive funds have outperformed active managers. However, I believe that we need to look beyond that: if fund managers are good at what they do, and illustrate a high level of commitment and vigour, then there is certainly a value to their role.

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We then simply pick the firms that we like, and take long positions, and the firms that we don’t like, and take short positions. Of course, there is much more to our methods, but this is the key outline of how we operate. Hence, although we focus on a specific region in the emerging markets world, we do look at the global state of affairs prior to executing our strategy.”

Just one year after their crisis, they achieved an annual return of 27.93%. In 2015, a year that provided intense headwinds for many hedge funds, AppleTree achieved a return of 18.85%.

Nicoletos’ openness about their previous pitfalls is a further testament to the level of transparency at AppleTree, which is another cornerstone of their philosophy. “Transparency is extremely important to us,” explains Nicoletos. “Apart from our monthly newsletter, which is used to keep our investors updated with how the fund is doing, we also think it is very important that our clients have access to us at any time, feeling confident at the answers they will receive, no matter how tough things are. On top of this, we also hire independent third parties that allow our investors to crosscheck our operations, providing them with an extra layer of confidence in our work. In that sense, our investors gain full knowledge of what we are doing and how we intend to move forward.

This has allowed us to build strong and lasting relationships with them.”

Prior to AppleTree, Michael Nicoletos worked as Head of International Equities at EFG Eurobank Securities, a Greek owned banking group, obtaining extensive experience in this niche area of emerging markets.

During this time, he advised both retail and institutional clients and was an active member of both Eurobank EFG Securities’ and Eurobank EFG Private Banking’s market strategy committee. Furthermore, he was among the first international traders to trade in Romania, Bulgaria and Serbia and took part in the first large IPOs across the region. It was during his time at Eurobank that Nicoletos met Dimitris Apistoulas, his partner at AppleTree Capital.

Since its inception in 2010, the firm has kept a small, tightly-knit team, allowing the company to grow and develop organically, while making sure that all of its members follow the same core principles and vision.

“We are a small team, but I believe that this is something that has worked in our favour,” says Nicoletos. “We communicate very well, and there is a high level of consistency in everything that we do.”

Looking towards the future, Nicoletos is confident that AppleTree Capital will continue to grow on its recent success. Moreover, AppleTree is very excited to announce that the company is in the process of opening a new office in London and getting an FCA licence, where they hope to add another fund to their portfolio. “Dimitris and I have always found the hedge fund industry an interesting and challenging place to work in, and we are very optimistic about opening a new office in London. With this transition, we will shift our primary operations in London (we intend to keep our office in Athens as support to the London office). It certainly is an exciting time for our business, and we are very much looking forward to the rest of 2016 and beyond.”

Name: Michael Nicoletos Company: AppleTree Capital Web: www.appletree-capital.com

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Ones to Watch in Hedge Funds 2016 24FX Global is an independent family office and a trading, advisory and currency hedging firm for global institutional and HNW clients. We spoke to Andy Schnappberger, MD of the company, to find out more about their company and learn the secrets behind their success.

At our firm, we manage individual accounts in the Forex Market and offer tailor made solutions for an external capital markets advisory, technical research and act more and more as an exclusive advisor for HNW and family offices. In terms of our approach, this is focused on technical and quantitative algorithms that are unlike any that you’ll find at our peers. Moreover, our performance target is over 20% per annum in all market conditions.

Our portfolios are 90% managed in the Forex market. So the main risk and reward comes from actively forex trading. During this process, we discuss with a client the risk tolerance as well as the connected reward and volatility aspects with these parameters. It is between these parameters that all currency risk is managed. In my view, a good managed forex portfolio account should have a good share in everyone’s global portfolio. I believe that the performance opportunities are the best from all asset classes when it comes to technical trading. From my experience, currencies as an asset class can be very much less riskier than other asset classes. Among other factors, it depends on the leverage of the account, and FX can be the performance booster of any account.

Therefore, it is extremely important that the risk is completely understood by both the investor and the trader/portfolio manager.

In terms of our background, 24 FX Management started as an external prop trading unit of a family office in the Monaco/South of France region at 2002. As a result of the success in our trading, we grew relatively fast, having another two family offices under management and consolidated all of our trading relevant activities in 24FX Management. This meant that all prop trading and capital market advisory was provided as an external firm to these three family offices. After that, our client base expanded, and led us to being involved with smaller FO, prop trading units, hedge funds and HNW with an understanding of risk. Due to our structure, we do not work for the retail sector. While growing even further in the past few years, we partnered with a financial advisory firm to form and to consolidate all trading and capital markets management and advisory, as well as external technical research activities.

When looking back on our success, I believe that there a number of ingredients that have contributed to our performance. First and foremost, we have an excellent and trustworthy team. Further, we have a philosophy that is against any corporate games and ego trips, and don’t worry about the fancy titles on our business cards. From our perspective, the most important card for a trader should be his/her ATM card.

As our industry can be quite intense, the right mind-set when it comes to trading and managing financial markets is fundamental, and you need the willingness to adopt and develop your personality. Perhaps often undervalued in our industry is that every member of our team needs a personal life that is outside of the financial markets. All in all, I believe that an open mind is important as well as surrounding myself with people who share the same qualities and habits.

Throughout this time, we are proud to say that we still have our very first investors and founding investors as clients or under management, and believe that this is a testament to how important we value long-term client relationships. Our understanding of risk and volatility (and of course the real difference of these two most important factors) as well as the needs of our clients have provided the basis for some very fruitful and long-term business relationships.

When it comes to alpha management and pure trading risks, I believe that the quote from Albert Einstein “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler” speaks volumes.

Looking closer at the services we provide, our main experience and investment experience lies in global spot FX trading as well as trading in derivatives such as bonds and indices. Meanwhile, we are also partner with family offices who want to build up an active trading arm as well offering tailor made technical research. One of our newer features is that we teach and coach HNW or trading units on several low risk trading tactics. This is if they want to manage some funds on their own or in-house alongside their external or third party investments. We have found that this service has resonated well with our clients, particularly in the Asia and Middle East regions. It is expensive and demanding, but has the possibility to reap some very impressive rewards. However, our main focus is in managing individual spot FX accounts.

Company: 24FX Global Advisors Name: Managing Director Andy Schnappberger Email: 24fx@24fxglobal.com Web Address: 24fxglobal.com Telephone: Voice: + 33 4 8973 2266 / Direct: +49 15902 47 49 47

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Ones to watch in Hedge Funds 2016 Based in Zurich, Finanz Konzept AG is a highly innovative independent asset manager who specialise in alternative investments. We spoke to Florian Agarwalla, Head of Sales at Finanz Konzept AG, to find out more about their company, as well as their unique investment strategy.

Our company’s niche area is in alternative investments, and at the moment we manage two investment funds. The first is the Physical Diamond Fund, which broadly invests in rough diamonds and natural polished diamonds. The diamonds are directly sourced from producers and they are certified by a Gemmological Institute. The fund targets a return of 5% to 6% p.a. with a target volatility of 2%-3% p.a. Furthermore, in 2015, the fund was selected as “Swiss Fund of the Year” by “Global Awards”.

Our second fund is called the Triple Opportunity Fixed Income Fund, which invests globally in government bonds, corporate bonds, convertible bonds and short term securities and securitised derivatives. The fund may use up to 200% Leverage, and the target return of the fund is 6% to 8% p.a., with a target volatility of 10% p.a. In 2013, the fund was elected as “Best Fixed Income Fund Europe” by “World Finance Hedge Funds Awards” and in 2014 the fund was elected as “Best Fixed Income Fund Switzerland” by “IFM Awards”.

When it comes to our process, risk management is essential. Finanz Konzept AG has a risk management framework that is designed to identify, monitor and mitigate the portfolio risk. Alongside this implementation, Finanz Konzept AG combines external research and inhouse proprietary research in order to adapt to changes in the market environment and future opportunities. In order to stay ahead in our highly competitive industry, our team of research analysts are constantly investigating the markets in order to identify the best opportunities for our clients.

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With regards to our region, Switzerland is one of the most competitive markets worldwide in terms of wealth management and asset management. Nonetheless, we manage to constantly grow our assets under management by offering innovative investment solutions and products to our clients.

As well as our highly innovative investment strategy, our approach towards client services also adds to our armoury in terms of standing out from our peers. Clients are our top priority, and we spend a lot of time with our clients to permanently understand their goals and needs. This enables us to construct “state of the art” tailor made portfolios.

Across the board, we are a people orientated company, and this extends beyond the close relationships we keep with our clients. Our staff are a tightly knit team who share the same values but at the same time bring their own unique skills to the company too. We employ experienced staff and look for a mix of employees with different educational and cultural backgrounds, and in this way we can learn from past experience and benefit from insights from best practice from multiple geographies.

Moreover, we ensure that we work in teams so that discussion is possible and the best ideas make it to client portfolios.

Within this environment, our employees care passionately about doing work that helps others. They value teamwork, and they’re always willing to pitch in or stay late if someone is behind on an important deadline.

This has led to a culture of trust, friendliness and mutual respect within the team and to much better results for our clients in terms of service and performance. Our people are by far our strongest asset, and we know that the talent and points of view of diverse individuals are what has built our legacy and shapes our future.

Looking towards the future, we are confident that our company will continue to grow and prosper. In the second half of 2016 we are planning to set up a Private Equity Buyout Fund which seeks to finance proven and technology driven businesses in the DACH region. Our cost efficient structure enables us to profitably focus on the micro segment. We expect MBOs/MBIs -because of a lack of succession-and growth financing to be the major drivers for private equity in this segment. Companies at that size often lack to make the best out of clear technology advantages.

Therefore, we follow a hands on approach and support our companies not only with capital, but also with know how in specific fields like internationalisation, structure and strategy. This is quite an exciting opportunity for us, and we look forward to see what’s in store for us in the coming months.

Company: Finanz Konzept AG Name: Florian Agarwalla Email:agarwalla@finanz-konzept.ch Web Address: www.finanz-konzept.ch Address: Schulhausstrasse 42, 8001 Zurich, Switzerland Telephone: +41 44 204 34 62

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CEO of the Month Everbridge provides enterprise software applications that automate processes for dealing with critical situations in order to keep people safe and businesses running. The company’s focus is on automating the exchange of critical information — to ensure the rapid and reliable distribution of notifications to employee populations, customers, citizens and communities when events such as severe weather or an active shooter could endanger people, or IT outages, cybersecurity attacks, or equipment failures might disrupt businesses. The solution delivers rich, two-way communication globally so that organizations can know that their constituencies are safe as well as gain situational understanding of critical events. We sat down with the firm’s Jaime Ellertson, Chairman & CEO, who lifts the lid on his career background prior to becoming a CEO, and describes the main challenges he faces in his current role at the helm of the business.

Can you give a brief overview of what your company does and your role within it?

To prioritize safety and minimize the impact of disruptive events, organizations need to be able to quickly assemble information and determine exactly who needs to receive each communication. Then, just as importantly, an organization needs to reliably deliver this information to virtually anyone, on any device or contact path, anywhere in the world. An example might be managing a substantial IT outage-- network engineers tasked with responding to the problem need one level of information, customer service representatives need another, and both need messages delivered to them in seconds. Global companies need to send notifications in multiple languages, and given the diverse ways people communicate, in multiple modes—via voice, email, text, digital signage, two-way radio, and so on. Our applications automate this process and deliver notifications at very large scale for over 2,700 enterprise customers, including 24 of 25 of North America’s busiest airports, 6 of 10 of the world’s largest auto makers, and in the U.S., 7 of the 10 largest investment banks and 4 of the 10 largest healthcare providers.

customers who are often the source of our best ideas for improving our platform and extending it to new applications and markets.

Can you go into more detail about the services you offer?

Let me give you a couple of examples of how our products are used.

The City of Boston, local hospitals, companies, and a number of nearby towns are all customers of Everbridge. When the Boston Marathon bombing happened, the Boston police used our software to contact and coordinate the actions of first responders. Hospitals used it to communicate to and bring in trauma surgeons to treat the wounded. The Watertown Police Department used it to keep citizens informed as police conducted a door-to-door search for the bombers. Local towns used it to advise citizens to stay indoors, and corporate customers used the software to check on the safety of their employees running in the Marathon.

These were all uses of our core application, Mass Notification. This application organizes the process for constructing and securely and reliably sending out notifications in seconds. It is based on a Software as a Service Architecture, with multiple data centers around the world, so we can scale to sending out millions of messages simultaneously and our infrastructure is never constrained by the severe weather issues that customers may be facing. We deliver messages via over 100 different modalities. In 2015, we sent out over 1 billion messages, we have contact data for over 100 million people, and our platform can deliver messages to over 200 countries and territories and in 14 languages and dialects.

My tenure at Everbridge began with my joining the Board of Directors in 2010. In late 2011 we merged a software company I had founded in 2009, CloudFloor, Inc., into Everbridge and I became CEO and Chairman of the Board. Everbridge was founded after the tragic events of September 11, 2001, when the need for instant, reliable communications to prioritize safety became clear. To build our business over the last 15 years we have been fortunate enough to attract great people – in fact over 50 of our current team members have worked together in multiple successful previous ventures. We have a saying at Everbridge: “first the team because the team is the business”—it is our way of highlighting the importance of people. My role is to lead the strategic corporate direction that enables our continued growth while being capital efficient. We focus on the top and bottom lines and pay close attention to a number of key performance metrics. Our entire Senior Management Team also spends a significant amount of time with customers. I personally spend a lot of time with new and current

A second application is IT Alerting. When an IT outage or cyberattack occurs at a company, the resulting service downtime can cost thousands or tens of thousands of dollars per minute. Companies use our IT Alerting application to rapidly notify and organize responders across departments in order to shorten the time to restoring service. Incident management procedures can be pre-built into the system based on rules so that the software knows what groups need to be represented, what type of infor-

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Can you tell us about your career background prior to becoming a CEO? I have actually been a CEO for most of my professional career. My second real job as a 21 year old involved my founding of a software company. Since then I have held multiple public and private company Chairman and CEO positions. Some examples include serving as CEO of Gomez, Inc., a private company and leader in the internet performance management space, of S1 Corporation, a public company and the first to provide on-line banking in North America, and of Interleaf, a public company that provided software tools for e-content management.

The common thread among the companies I have led was that they were all profitable, high-growth tech companies.

mation they should receive, who to contact within the groups, how they are best reached, and, if people with the right skill sets do not respond in a prescribed period of time, who to escalate to. Other stakeholders, such as executive team members and customer service representatives, can be simultaneously notified with messages appropriate to them so they are kept properly informed. Automating the process lowers costs, improves speed, and avoids errors at what are often times of high stress.

We are also leveraging the power of our underlying platform with additional applications. We have introduced a secure messaging application which enables healthcare organizations to replace patient home visits with telemedicine check-ins and to rapidly organize teams to respond to code alerts in hospitals. Safety Connection, our newest solution, enables organizations to determine if traveling or mobile employees are safe in the event of a man-made incident or natural disaster, to get them instructions, and to ensure that buildings have been fully evacuated when required.

Safety Connection is the first Internet of Things (IoT)-related application we have introduced. With sensor data and connected devices becoming ubiquitous, we see a growing need for companies to organize employees to respond to whole new classes of alerts and believe IoT applications and use cases represent a significant new market opportunity for us.

Following on from this, how did you attain the position of CEO? I became CEO when Everbridge acquired a company I had founded, CloudFloor, Inc. Everbridge was looking to rebuild the core technology underpinning its platform based on a cloud infrastructure. The CloudFloor solution, and the management team behind it, were a great fit.

How do you think your company has performed while you have been CEO? I set stretch goals and am a tough grader so I tend to not often be fully satisfied with how we perform. That said, we have made dramatic progress over the past 5 years on pretty much all fronts — our people, our products and the underlying platform, customer wins and follow-on purchases, and our vision for the future have led to top-of-class growth overall for Everbridge. From 2012 to 2015 we have achieved average annual revenue growth of 35-40% versus approximately 10% growth in total sales in 2010.

And we have been able to achieve this growth without any new capital infusion. I am very excited about where we are and where we are going.

How does it feel to be awarded CEO of the Month?

I am honored to receive this award. I’m especially pleased for our team.

We put a strong emphasis on our management team working together— we win or lose as a team. This is a nice win for our team.

What are the main challenges you face in your role, at the helm of the business?

People are by far our most important asset. In the hot tech space, competing against giants like Google and Amazon for talent is difficult.

We focus a great deal of effort on attracting, hiring and retaining great people. We have also worked hard to develop our culture. This has been aided by our mission, which is to not only build great technology solutions but to deliver solutions that help people. We hear stories from customers using our solutions to help find a missing child, or to successfully evacuate an area after a dangerous chemical spill, and these results makes all of us at Everbridge proud of what we do!

As CEO, what do you see as the main challenges for your company in the future?

The key challenge is to continue add and retain great people while scaling the business. As one measure, we have gone from sending under 50 million notifications in 2010 to over 1 billion in 2015, and from fewer than 20 million people connected to our solutions to over 100 million people connected today. We’ve put in place a scalable architecture on the platform side but we are going to need to hire great sales and marketing, operations, and technical staff, to continue to mature some of our operational processes, and to increase the sophistication of some of our management processes. It’s very important for us to stay ahead of the curve in these areas.

On the execution side, we have an enormous opportunity to expand our business internationally. Our current sales are driven 85% from North America and 15% internationally. The international space is ultimately much larger than the U.S.—these markets are more mobile oriented, they have a wider diversity of communications requirements, and are just as prone to emergencies and critical events, both man-made and natural. A key question for us is where to build organically overseas and where to buy or partner. The wrong decisions can cost us years of missed opportunity. International growth is an accelerator for Everbridge—we’ve got to get this right.

Do you have any plans for 2016 and beyond that you would like to share with our readers?

We have been adding new solutions which open up new addressable markets. We have gone from two products on our critical communications platform in 2010 to seven products today. The new products leverage the power and scalability of our underlying platform. In 2016, we have announced Safety Connection, which adds a new location dimension to notifying traveling and mobile employees to keep them safe. We’ll continue to ensure that our customers have effective ways to communicate with people no matter where they are through our resilient platform and innovative applications.

When hiring staff, what kind of people are you looking for that will help you drive your business?

We are strong operators and I look for senior people who are intelligent, curious, and have a track record of doing what they say they will do and being accountable. We also hire a fairly large number of people as their first or second job after college. Here, I want people with good intellects and a real hunger to learn. Just as important as people’s skills is their fit with our culture. Our teams and leaders are highly collaborative so we involve a lot of people in the interviewing process to make sure we and the candidates are excited about the opportunity to work together.

Company: Everbridge Name: Jaime Ellertson, Chairman & CEO Web Address: www.everbridge.com Address: North America Headquarters - East Coast, 25 Corporate Drive, Burlington, MA 01803 USA Telephone: +1 818 230 9700

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European Broker of the Year 2016 & Best for Long-Term Investments 2016 FXFINPRO Capital is a highly innovative Financial Brokerage company with its headquarters located in Cyprus. The company was established by an experienced team of finance, technology, legal, marketing and sales professionals who are dedicated to providing unbiased, client-centred investment solutions and outstanding service and professionalism through an “out-of-the-box” approach. We spoke to them to find out more about their company, and the ever-increasing demand in forex trading.

In terms of our expertise, we are a universal broker and offer a broad spectrum of investment products and tools, such as the ability to trade in stocks, futures, foreign exchange (‘Forex’), contracts for difference (‘CFDs’), indices, options and many other financial derivatives.

their clients. Therefore, we do not have any trading restrictions for our clients, and we send all of our clients’ orders directly to the market.

Moreover, we are not limited to offer trading only in forex, and have access to almost any market available in the world, such as; CFDs, futures, options, stocks, ETFs and many more. Furthermore, we offer our clients a choice between there platforms for trading, where each platform has its own unique features, which in turn help our traders to maintain their trading environment.

Through building long-term relationships with our clients, we create a foundation of trust and a culture designed to promote on-going education and understanding of concepts that have traditionally been perceived as complex and intimidating. We strive to achieve excellence in investment results and client servicing through personal commitment, experience, and innovative thinking.

Lastly, but certainly not least, the technology behind our investment platforms enables us to automatically submit your trade requests to our liquidity providers with the best bid/offer and wait for a confirmation prior to sending accept or reject message to our clients.

As you may already know, there are a lot of forex companies out there.

However, we believe that there are a number of factors that help us stand out from the competitors. Our first differentiator lies in regulation.

While being regulated by a high profile organisation such CySEC, we are also a member of the Investor Compensation Fund (ICF), which allows our clients to receive compensation for any successful claim subject to a maximum compensation of 20 000 Euro. All of our clients’ funds are kept in segregated accounts in order to maximise the security of funds.

Additionally, we offer our clients superior customer support which is available 24 hours a day.

In terms of our approach towards dealing with clients, we believe that all of our clients are valuable assets of FXFINPRO Capital and as a result, we dedicate a sales manager to every client. As such, the managers can be contacted by any possible way, including Skype and Whatsapp.

We offer individual consultations and advice on which account to open, which will be suitable for a particular trader. We also offer various trading accounts, with different trading specifications. As a result, we have trading accounts, which will be suitable for any strategy. As mentioned earlier, our dedicated support team will answer any question a client might have in a professional and formal manner, anytime of the day.

Alongside this, we are also an ECN Broker and therefore are interested in successful trading from our clients, because we only receive our profit from the commissions generated by them. In this sense, we are unlike market maker companies, who receive their profits from the losses of

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Once the client is on board, we make constant follow-ups in order to check whether the client requires any assistance or has any suggestions, regarding our company. Even if a client is new to the Forex industry, we will be more than happy to provide all the teaching material and assist to enrol for online education with our partners.

When it comes to large institutional clients, our senior members of the company are willing to travel anywhere in the world in order to greet the clients and introduce them to our products and services. We believe that such face-to-face meetings are very productive for the client, as he or she can receive detailed answers to any complex questions.

In order to prevail in our highly competitive industry, we are constantly improving the quality of our products and services. Among our future plans is to open company branches in major capitals worldwide, thus making it accessible for anyone to visit us face-to-face We believe it is very important for clients to know that they can visit our company branch, in case they require any further assistance.

We also plan to add another world class liquidity provider, and one of the key aspects of the brokerage services is the speed order execution.

Thus, we are eager to work with large liquidity providers that will offer our clients the best trading environment. Moreover, we plan to add more payment systems for deposits/withdrawals. It is crucial to have as many methods as possible, in order to make it accessible for anyone in the world to work with FXFINPRO Capital and gain their financial freedom.

Likewise, we are also increasing the capacity of our sales team. Due to increased registrations from all over the world, we are planning to hire multicultural staff that will be able to assist our clients in different languages. As a result, the advantages and specifications of our services will be easier to understand.

Also in the pipeline is the development of our own trading platform. Our team of IT specialists, along with our marketing and risk managers will be able to create a modern, easy to use, universal trading platform that will make trading - even simpler.

With the demand for forex trading on the rise, we are establishing forex schools with trading rooms. We believe that our skilled and experienced lecturers will help anyone to learn the basics of trading and as a result, gain financial freedom. All of our schools will have trading rooms, where students and graduates will be able to trade and communicate between each other.

As for the award, we believe that it is a great achievement by our team to win such awards from such a prestigious publisher! We are proud that our efforts were noticed and awarded correspondingly, and we aim to continue improving the quality of our services and justify the trust put into our company by our current and potential clients.

Company: FXFINPRO Capital Name: Georgy Agasandyan Email: g.agasandyan@fxfinpro.com Web Address: www.fxfinpro.com Address: Nikou Pattichi 82, Maritania court, office 101, area code 3070 Limassol, Cyprus Telephone: +357 2526 2102

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Investing in Crowdfunding Projects

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Lendified is the brainchild of Troy Wright and Kevin Clark, two seasoned professionals in the Canadian banking industry who set their sights on the often-overlooked area of supporting small businesses. We spoke to Kevin Clark to find out more about their company, and get their insight into the myriad of developments, including crowdfunding, in the fintech industry.

“If I were to describe Lendified in my own words, I would describe us as a lending technology company, and our primary focus being originally on the provision of working capital loans to small businesses in Canada and secondly to now more broadly supporting financial services companies seeking credit risk review process enhancements and efficiencies globally. Our platform provides us with a tremendous amount of opportunities through a variety of applications to generate service/subscriber-based revenues, while maintaining a stable base of revenue through short-term lending to the small business market all across Canada, actually using the same portal/credit adjudication process tools we now are licencing”.

our products and services is a team build on a variety of core skills to ensure delivery of the most advanced use of technology, the best possible coding to drive our decisions and a methodology to reduce the friction in the customer experience. More specifically in the fintech industry, having a very capable skillset is crucial”.

Being successful in this industry is an ongoing process, so companies in this space must constantly have their eye on any emerging developments in the industry. Recently, Wright attended the “Lendit conference” in San Francisco, which brings together all the major players in the financial technology sector. During this year’s conference, 4500 people attended, whereas last year’s had 2500 and the year before had only 800 - a clear testament to the direction the industry is moving, with more and more desire for involvement. During that conference, one of the main points addressed was the urgency in which companies need to move to gain traction in their particular product application. There is no doubt that the technology is constantly advancing, with windows of opportunity becoming tighter.

Although early in the development of their licencing model, Lendified’s perhaps more interesting area of revenue generation is this services aspect of supporting, enhancing and streamlining credit risk analysis and SME lending activities for other financial services institutions. “This model can be used for other institutions to use and analyse the credit performance of small businesses for strategic benefit - like for insurance companies, leasing companies, trust companies, banks and just about every firm that’s analysing SME credit these days”.

Funding costs for these new lending businesses can be challenging – the cost of capital being potentially high and dependent on many factors.

“For us, crowdfunding may or may not play a role in our development.

Certainly it is important to be aware that crowdfunding is both a source of debt capital and equity, and the term seems to be very liberally used as of late. Generally speaking, I think conceptually, the process has been great for companies who are in start-up mode. Interestingly in Canada, the incubator process and investment interest has been been quite strong with crowdfunding becoming a successful source of equity capital in the fintech marketplace. Such is the popularity of this particular type of funding, that I would argue that it’s even harder to find secondary capital than it is to find start-up capital”.

Another unique aspect of Lendified, is the wealth of experience they can provide their customers. Both Clark and Wright, spent 30 years with the Bank of Nova Scotia, which is one of the Canadian ‘Big 5’ banks. During this time, they held executive positions in operations, client-facing sales businesses, and broader general management responsibilities, both domestically and abroad, with Lendified being born out of the awareness of the SME segment not being served well in the Canadian market and to some extent ignored by the “Big 5”. Canada is by no means exceptional in this area, and this is a prevailing issue across many markets.

From their experience of working in a major bank, they’re very aware that small business lending can be a difficult area to achieve acceptable returns because of its cost structures. The fintech industry in general, and certainly Lendified, however, without legacy systems and overhead, has developed a business platform that holds the per-customer cost to 10 and maybe 5% of the cost that traditional institutions incur to review and adjudicate credit with the same output. And additionally, models like the Lendified model are built with significant scalability. And as Clark indicated, “banks are very keen to maintain deposits to help strengthen their capital base, but are shy in terms of providing that same customer access to credit because of the cost of doing so”.

“On the whole, crowdfunding has the benefit of attracting smaller investors. However, there is still an uncertainty in terms of capital coming back given its infancy. It will be interesting to see when these investments start to show returns. When they do, and a general understanding of what the average length of time is for these investors, we will get a better feel for its permanency as an investment class.”

Looking further down the road, the fintech industry is only going to grow and the future looks very bright for companies like Lendified. As Clark notes “although we are clearly aware that the future is unpredictable, particularly in the financial services world, there’s no doubt that there is huge innovation being developed and opportunity to leverage that. It is certainly an exciting place to be.

As a company operating in the ever-evolving fintech industry, the business is also built on having a combination of highly innovative technology and data science skills. It is fundamental for them that they can design and build the tools necessary to adjudicate the credit with the same (or better) outcomes of portfolio performance. This process, simply-speaking, involves the gathering of data, and deciphering that data to draw conclusions based on historical performance on what will happen in the future. Building out the model to ever-increasing capability and increasing amounts of data-input is critical to its developing technology. “Behind

Company: Lendified Web: www.lendified.com Address: 330 Bay St #306, Toronto, ON M5H 2S8, Canada Phone: +1 844-451-3594

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2016 Asia Pacific Legal Guide

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Thiru & Thiru is a full service mid-size law firm with nine partners and 50 plus associates. We got in touch with Thiruvengadam B.C, Senior Partner at Thiru & Thiru, to find out more about their firm and got his insight into the Indian legal landscape.

We are one of South India’s largest law firms, with a principal office in Bangalore and branch offices in Chennai, Hyderabad and New Delhi.

Moreover, we have exclusive affiliate relationships with law firms and lawyers in areas such as Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Surat, Chandigarh, Allahabad, Kolkatta, Bhubaneswar, Coimbatore and Kochi.

In terms of the services we provide, our main areas of practice are in banking, project finance, corporate restructuring and bankruptcy, to name a few.

In terms of our culture, honesty and sincerity to the client are our mantras. It is our duty to keep the client well informed; disclose the positives as well as the negative issues while counselling and ensure that clients are not forced to take a decision, instead guide the client to logical analysis of the issues involved. The advice should be sound and well-reasoned, and we give utmost importance to confidentiality and ethical values.

At our firm, every client is important to us and every work done by an associate is always reviewed in detail by a partner. Partners are easily accessible, and clients’ calls and queries are promptly answered within 14 working hours. We have a policy not to say “no” to our clients, and try our best to find an answer or at least provide alternatives.

Our firm has grown alongside Bangalore, and the city was not a big city 35 years ago. It has now become the educational capital of India, with the biggest number of engineering, medical and law schools in the country. During the pre-liberalisation era, the availability of technocrats and its salubrious climate saw the establishment of major public sector undertakings. For example, the Indian Space Research Organisation has its headquarters in Bangalore and our firm has been very closely associated with it since the early eighties. This created a strong technology law practice and helped the firm to be a major player in the intellectual property and technology law areas.

When it comes to hiring new staff, we hire lawyers who are knowledgeable, willing to learn, and having an appropriate team spirit attitude. We have been lucky with the staff we have taken on, and we provide a great opportunity to learn from the combined experience of our partners which is about 266 years who imbibe the values to our young associates.

During the mid-eighties, the firm helped in setting up India’s first Venture Capital Fund - TDICI. It was also associated with several venture capital funds and banking and non-banking finance companies. In this environment, hand holding start-ups during the nineties was a niche area in the information technology industry. Furthermore, as the city grew and expanded, the firm advised on several major real estate transactions. Post-liberalisation, the firm has been advising several PE and VC funds, and the firm is very well known in its litigation practice, especially in the fields of corporate litigation and banking.

Moreover, the firm is a knowledge centre, and we strongly encourage learning. In this environment, the seniors mentor the juniors, and we believe that any up to date knowledge helps the client ultimately. Additionally, the firm takes pride in having promoted India’s first finishing school for lawyers “The Marquis Diamond Finishing School”. This helps the members of the firm to keep themselves abreast with the changes in the industrial, technological, socio- economic arenas.

With all of these attributes in mind, we are confident that our company will continue to grow in the future. Furthermore, Indian industries are gradually becoming multinational, and our clients have been constantly requesting us to open offices abroad. Very soon we will be opening our office in Dubai, and will bring many more exciting opportunities to our company.

Flashing forward to today, the legal industry in India is flooded. Thousands of lawyers pass out of law schools each year and many of them start their own firms or individual practices, sadly without much experience and at low cost. This is where the more established professionals stand out, and the lesser experienced learn some pretty harsh lessons.

At Thiru & Thiru, we have a unique blend of rich experience and energetic youth.

Company: Thiru &Thiru Name: Mr. THIRUVENGADAM B C Email: info@thiruandthiru.com Web Address: www.thiruandthiru.com Address: #31, Nandidurg Raod, Thiru & Thiru Chambers, Jayamahal, Bangalore 560046, India.

Telephone: +91 2343 03024 /05 /06

Looking beyond India, the overall industrial growth in Asia-Pacific is stunted and this has made an impact on the legal industry too. While litigation is on the rise, transactions have fallen sharply. Moreover, non-litigation practice in our opinion may not be as encouraging as it was in the past.

When looking at particular sectors, infrastructure is a very promising area which India is pressing to grow in, and non-conventional energy has gained momentum. Generally speaking, any industry that grows in direct proportion with the population is a sure winner here. Healthcare, agriculture, essential consumer durables, food, two wheelers and education are areas that will see a good growth.

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Yen-jong Lee, Partner

THe.MiS Attorneys -at-Law

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THe.MiS Attorneys-at-Law is a Taiwanese law firm specialising in domestic and international family law, human rights law, litigation and dispute resolution. Established in 2013 by three female partners, I-ching Kuo, Chiao-ju Chuang and Yen-jong Lee, our firm has represented clients in several high profile litigation cases regarding gender equality in the workplace, same-sex marriage and violence against women.

Our goal is to help our clients assert their rights and empower them during the whole legal process. Throughout this process, we build up a professional and close relationship with our clients, which we view as our partners.

As well as litigating on individual cases, we provide general company and compliance advice to both Taiwanese and foreign corporate clients.

As an internationally focussed firm, we provide legal services in Chinese, English, Japanese and French. As a boutique law firm, we believe that our stature enables us to provide a more personalised service for our clients.

Chiao-ju Chuang, Managing Partner (above) I-ching Kuo, Partner (below)

Ethics are the core of everything we do, and our associates and staff are fully aware of the value of their role as counsel and companion to our clients we assist by providing legal service. The main concern of our firm is human rights, especially gender equality. This is the reason why our partners are all activists in human rights movement in Taiwan, such as the movement for women’s rights, the movement for migrants’ rights and the abolition of the death penalty.

We take great pride in the fact that we are a female owned law firm, and believe all three of our partners bring their own unique set of skills to the firm. We all practice three distinct styles, have three different personalities, but at the same time share the same passion for gender equality and human rights issues.

Over the years, we have developed a network with other law firms, with ties in Taiwan, Hong Kong and China. Furthermore, we are hoping to work with other law firms in other country in Asia Pacific area and other continents in the field of International family law in the near future.

Company: THe.MiS Attorneys-at-law Email: office@themislaw.com.tw Web Address www.themislaw.com.tw Address: 10F, No.123, XinSheng S. Road, Sec.1, Taipei 106, TAIWAN Telephone: +886-2-8771-8611 Fax: +886-2-8771-9181

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2016 Asia Pacific Legal Guide Rosetini Ibrahim established Rosetini & Partners (the “Firm”) in the beginning of 2005.

Clients The Firm’s clients are mostly foreign companies that are doing business in Indonesia. Many of its clients are companies or subsidiaries of companies from Japan. It also has clients from other countries, among others USA, Germany and Singapore.

The Firm’s tagline is: passionate, committed and reliable. It is passionate about assisting the legal needs of its clients and committed to deliver the best outcome for them. It is reliable because it values the trust of its clients and put their needs and interest as first priority.

Rosetini & Partners is committed to providing quality legal service with a high degree of attention to its clients. It is the firm’s objective to understand the clients’ needs and assist them in an efficient and effective manner to achieve their goals and conclude their transactions.

Indonesia’s economy has been going through different phases because of the economic and political situation. Many laws and regulations have been changed following the dynamics in the economic development and political situation both domestically or by the influence of other countries and global trends.

General Corporate Matters Concerning general corporate matters, the Firm offers legal assistance in relation to the presence and operations of companies doing business in Indonesia by providing advice on the relevant regulations with respect to the business activities of those companies.

Therefore, it is of utmost importance for companies that are doing business in Indonesia to obtain professional legal advice which will provide them with understanding and knowledge about the Indonesian legal system and practice.

Banking & Finance The Firm also has experience in providing legal services in the areas of banking and finance. In the area of banking, it can assist in drafting loan agreements, security documents and other banking transaction documents, either representing the lender or the borrower. The Firm also provides advice on banking law and regulations.

With the experience of its lawyers and their professional integrity, the firm ensures that its clients are provided with quality legal services. The Firm is aiming for a long term and mutually beneficial relationship with its clients.

The Firm believes that with its passion, experience, commitment, dedication and professionalism it will be able to continue providing legal assistance as required by its clients and contributing to the success of their business in Indonesia.

Foreign Direct Investment The Firm assists its clients in realizing their goals to develop their business in Indonesia starting from helping the clients to prepare the best possible scheme of transactions for their investment in Indonesia considering the legal environment.

Company: ROSETINI &PARTNERS Name: Rosetini Ibrahim (Managing Partner) Email: ribrahim@rosetini.co.id Web Address: www.rosetini.co.id Address: Office 8, 18th-19th Floor, SCBD Lot 28 Jl. Jenderal Sudirman Kav.52-53, Jakarta 12190 Indonesia Telephone: +6221 2933 3618

Mergers & Acquisitions In acquisition transactions it has represented the acquirers, as well as the sellers. It assists its clients with their corporate approval and government approval requirements in the merger process. The Firm also assists in the structuring of transactions for its clients, so that they will have the most beneficial structure and still comply with prevailing laws.

It also performs the due diligence, prepare the transaction documents and provide assistance in procuring the local regulatory approvals.

Restructuring The Firm has represented both borrowers and lenders in certain loan restructurings. It provides advice and prepares necessary documents related to the restructuring transaction.

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New Consultation Announced on the Proposed Corporate Offence of Failing to Prevent the Facilitation of Tax Evasion In a new consultation published on 17th April, the Government has outlined the latest incarnation of its plans to hold corporate bodies criminally liable for failing to prevent the facilitation of tax evasion.

This new consultation has been anticipated ever since the original consultation in July 2015, which led to the publication in December 2015 of the first draft of the legislation. A revised draft of the legislation is annexed to yesterday’s consultation.

On 11 April, the Prime Minister’s office issued a press release announcing that the draft legislation was being brought forward in light of the London Anti-Corruption Summit on 12 May. The press release also referred to plans for a cross-agency taskforce, led by HMRC and the NCA, to investigate illegality arising from the Panama Papers.

1. An expanded definition of the circumstances in which a prosecution can take place of a foreign company for failing to prevent the facilitation of foreign tax evasion.

2. A restricted definition of the circumstances in which facilitation of UK tax evasion can occur.

3. A new defence whereby the corporate commits no offence if it was reasonable not to have any prevention procedures in place.

To be clear, the draft law is not a means by which the Government could seek the prosecution of those implicated in the Panama Papers.

The law would, for example, have no application whatsoever to the type of offshore investment scheme which David Cameron’s father managed.

The law does not expand the definition of tax evasion under UK law, nor does it criminalise what some regard as immoral tax avoidance.

However, the timing of the consultation is no doubt calculated to deflect the current waves of criticism concerning the Government’s broader approach to combating tax fraud.

The first difference The offence relating to UK tax evasion facilitation applies to all companies and partnerships, regardless of whether they are incorporated or formed in the UK. In contrast, the offence relating to foreign tax evasion facilitation requires one of the following: 1. That the relevant body is incorporated/formed in the UK; 2. That the relevant body is carrying on a business or undertaking (or part thereof) from an establishment in the UK; or 3. That any act or omission forming part of the foreign tax evasion facilitation offence takes place within the UK.

What is the offence?

The substance of the offence remains the same as originally proposed, namely to criminalise corporate bodies which fail to prevent an associated person from facilitating the fraudulent evasion of tax, either in the UK or overseas. The offence utilises the “failure to prevent” model of strict liability found in section 7 of the Bribery Act 2010, and replicates the definitions of “associated person” and “relevant body” almost exactly.

The associated person who facilitates a tax evasion offence can therefore be legal or natural, and can perform services for or on behalf of the corporate as an employee, agent or subsidiary.

This third permutation did not appear in the draft law published in December 2015. Its inclusion in today’s draft law means, for example, that a Brazilian company, with a business located solely in Brazil, would be criminally liable in the UK if it fails to prevent one of its agents performing an act in the UK that constitutes an offence of facilitating the evasion of Brazilian tax (e.g. a telephone call in London which facilitates the evasion of Brazilian tax). On one view, expanding the draft law in this way simply reflects ordinary principles of jurisdiction under UK criminal law. However, prosecuting foreign companies for their failure to prevent foreign tax evasion, especially when they are not even carrying out any business in the UK, is almost inconceivable in practice.

There are three important differences between the draft law published yesterday and the draft published in December 2015. These are as follows:

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Indeed, when one looks at the draft provisions relating to the facilitation of foreign tax evasion, it is difficult not to feel a sense of unreality. The draft law states that the tax evasion must be both an offence under the law of the country relating to evasion of tax payable in that country and a tax evasion offence under UK law. In addition, the facilitation of the tax evasion must be both an offence under the law of the country where the evasion takes place and an offence in the UK. These provisions sensibly contain a “dual criminality” protection, which means a company cannot be prosecuted in the UK in relation to facilitating a tax offence which would not be criminalised under UK law. Even so, one has to question the practicality and public interest in prosecuting companies in relation to foreign tax. A prosecutor would need to call expert evidence about foreign tax law, to prove both the evasion offence and the facilitation offence. Except in the most egregious cases, this is likely to be an insurmountable hurdle, given the varying (and difficult to interpret) thresholds of evasion and avoidance created in tax regimes across the world. Those defending the company would seek to sow confusion in a jury by turning any trial into an abstruse debate about foreign law.

This second defence was not found in December 2015 draft. It has no precedent in the Bribery Act 2010. Its introduction marks a policy shift which gives greater protection to a corporate suspect. It seems to recognise, quite rightly, that small to medium entities should not be unduly burdened with creating compliance procedures if they reasonably perceive the risks of tax facilitation in their business to be non-existent. Whilst the guidance elaborates helpfully on how reasonable prevention procedures might be developed, it has nothing useful to say about the circumstances in which an absence of procedures might be reasonable. The devil will be in the detail, of course, because the reasonableness of the procedures will be determined by the risk profile of the particular corporate. The consultation invites respondents to suggest case studies on this point.

Conclusions There are many statutory and common law offences which criminalise tax evasion. There are the so-called “professional enablers” provisions under the Serious Crime Act 2015 criminalising those who facilitate offences including tax evasion. There are far more serious criminal offences of money laundering under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, which criminalise all dealings with the proceeds of tax evasion.

The facilitation of foreign tax evasion bears the hallmarks of a similar provision – section 71 Criminal Justice Act 1993, which has sat on the statute books for many years but which has never, to our knowledge, been successfully prosecuted. This section created an offence of aiding or inducing conduct in relation to the evasion of certain defined taxes within the EU. To commit this offence, the evasion itself occurs in the EU (outside the UK) but the assistance or inducement of that evasion occurs within the UK. If prosecuting the evasion of EU taxes under section 71 CJA 1993 has proved impossible over the past two decades, what prospect is there of this foreign tax facilitation offence being successfully enforced? It is simply not in the public interest to create criminal offences which stand no realistic prospect of being prosecuted in practice. In the vast majority of cases, where the authorities of a foreign country have suffered a tax loss, the most pragmatic – and arguably the more just – solution is to place the culpable suspects on trial in that foreign country (and if they are in the UK, to extradite them to the foreign country).

What distinguishes the proposed offence from all of these existing laws is the stringent obligations it places on corporates to monitor persons associated with them. The clear objective of the draft law is to impose on the corporate the compliance burden of policing its employees, agents and subsidiaries, with the aim of creating more responsible corporate citizens, thereby helping to stamp out tax evasion at its source, or helping HMRC to identify tax evasion it might not otherwise detect.

Over the past few years, the Government has repeatedly said that it is serious about investigating and prosecuting aggressive tax fraud. But it also knows how difficult it is to gather evidence and secure convictions, particularly where the evasion involves opaque offshore structures. Only last week the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee lambasted HMRC’s “woefully inadequate” prosecutorial record.

The second difference The draft law sets out what constitutes the relevant tax evasion offences alleged to have been facilitated. Unsurprisingly in the UK, this includes an offence of cheating the public revenue, but also covers any offence “consisting of being knowingly concerned in, or taking steps with a view to, the fraudulent evasion of tax.” The facilitation of this offence is committed where a person with the necessary knowledge and intent, aids, abets, counsels or procures the commission of the offence. The facilitation is also committed where a person is knowingly concerned in the commission of the tax evasion offence. However, a company cannot be criminally liable where the associated person was involved in “encouraging or assisting the commission of the offence” – the wording found in the December 2015 draft. This somewhat woolly language has now been removed, with the result that the concept of facilitation is now firmly based on well-established criminal law concepts of accessorial liability.

Given HMRC’s stretched budget, and to improve HMRC’s prosecutorial record, it is no doubt politically expedient to criminalise the easier targets – the corporates which fail, even inadvertently, to prevent the facilitation of tax evasion, and which may have little appetite for contested criminal litigation. A cynic would say that business is being asked to bear the burden of HMRC’s inability to prosecute the true tax evaders. However, that perspective ignores the raft of other measures, both domestic and international, that are being planned so as to bolster the fight against tax evasion, not least the introduction of the Common Reporting Standard in 2017.

Businesses can take limited comfort from the fact that the consultation emphasises that they need only act proportionately to the risks arising in their sectors, so as to develop compliance procedures which are reasonable rather than all-encompassing. However, it is not easy to square that position with the Government’s insistence on criminalising the failure to prevent the facilitation of foreign tax evasion – a prospect which any significant multinational business would rightly regard as a compliance nightmare. For this reason, as well as the significant legal difficulties of proving the commission of foreign tax crimes, the authors believe that the offence should be limited to the failure to prevent the facilitation of UK tax evasion.

The third difference The draft law provides the corporate with the same defence to both the UK and overseas offences. To rely on this defence, the corporate must prove that, at the time of the facilitation, one of the following applied: 1. That the corporate had in place such prevention procedures as it was reasonable to have in place; or 2. That in all the circumstances, it was not reasonable to expect the corporate to have any prevention procedures in place.

Corker Binning is a law firm specialising in business crime and fraud, regulatory litigation and general criminal work of all types.

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Wealth & Finance International | April 2016

A Tale of Two Wallets

US model

EU model

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Phil Davies, Managing Director of PSI-Pay gives his personal perspective on American vs European payment ‘wallet’ models.

Wallets, or purses, have been around since bartering was replaced by the exchange of goods for currency of whatever variety. Therefore, they were handy means of carrying that currency in case you needed to ‘buy’ something on your travels. Centuries, if not millennia, have passed and we are now in the electronic, or digital, age. The wallet and/or purse are still with us albeit with that all important prefix the ‘E.’ There are a plethora of ‘E’ wallets these days all offering the provision of various beneficial attributes, depending on the requirements of the user but the fundamental reason for being remains much the same.

is used to complete a purchase of ‘electronic’ money any chargeback liability must stop with the wallet operator.

This type of wallet works in much the same way as a bank current account, the fundamental differences are that E money accounts are not allowed to offer credit so no overdraft. They are also not allowed to allow interest to accrue on outstanding account balances, although there are ways to reward those situations. The most noticeable difference, which is not entirely apparent, is that bank accounts are safeguarded under EU deposit protection schemes up to a specified limit (£75k in the UK, for example). Electronic money is not covered under these compensation schemes but are subject to even greater security stringencies in that 100% of funds must be ring-fenced in compliant safeguarded client accounts which have no financial limits imposed.

For the purposes of this article I will, briefly, examine just two basic models, comparing and contrasting the differences and why payment professionals should be aware of them.

1: The “American” The first, which I am terming the American, model works primarily on the basis that someone wishes to buy goods online.

So it is these ‘wallets’ that have funds deposited in the aforementioned safeguarded accounts that must have those funds deposited, or loaded, before any further transaction can take place. With this type of ‘wallet’ a number of different types of transactions can occur, in much the same way as a bank current account does as mentioned previously, usually including the use of a payment card to access the funds contained therein.

This model, unsurprisingly, is suited to the American payment culture and transactions are, literally, like for like. This is used for account discretion, security and may also embody a loyalty program. There is no element of stored value and transactions are fully card based and so it may be possible for chargebacks to be passed through, dependent on circumstances.

It is clear, therefore, that the beneficiary of the funds is the ‘wallet’ operator as funds are stored for future transactions or future multiple transactions. If the funds are deposited/loaded using a payment card then the transaction coding should always be of a financial services nature since the customer is, at this point, purchasing ‘electronic money.’

So having decided I’m going to buy something online and flag that with the merchant I will be presented with, typically, a number of payment options which will usually include a wallet alongside the usual payment card options. If I choose to pay by the wallet option, assuming I already hold an account, then the payment I have committed to is cleared and settled via the wallet operator using my predetermined deposit option.

Should that deposit, or load, option be a payment card then it is easy for the scheme, and its associated issuer and acquirers, to identify the beneficiary of the funds and have the transaction coded in the most appropriate way since the funds are ‘passed through’ for an end to end transaction, in simple terms anyway.

The customer now has the wherewithal to conduct transactions, at their leisure, as if it were a current account, in fact there is an increasing number of individuals, and SME businesses, that are choosing to use these accounts instead of, or in addition to, bank current accounts.

I have, perhaps, laboured the point here but the purpose of this is to highlight the fact that some card schemes are trying to force the second model, as described, to fit the first type of model which just isn’t realistic, or accurate. My contention, therefore, is that we should have a category of ‘digital account’ for the second model and definitions applied accordingly thus giving full transparency and accuracy.

There are many organisations operating wallets of this type, including the card schemes themselves. All well and good so far then.

2. The “European” Now we come to the second, which I’m terming the European, type of wallet. Catering for the many different payment cultures in Europe and feature many and varied forms of load of which cards may be one option.

So perhaps the question to ask should be: Q. “When is a wallet not a wallet?”

A. “When it’s a digital account!”

Phil Davies is the Managing Director of PSI-Pay Ltd. Prior to heading up PSI-Pay, spent eight years with MasterCard Worldwide as Vice President-Business Development. There he was responsible for implementing new initiatives designed to encompass new products, technology and strategic partnership to stimulate growth in emerging markets throughout Europe.

One of the reasons that most of this type of wallet have payment cards attached to them so that a broader range of merchants can be reached and facilities, such as ATM’s, can be accessed.

Again this model is used where financial and account discretion and security is desired but this model also, invariably, incorporates a stored value element, including multi-currency capability. Because the load

By Phil Davies, MD, PSI-Pay. For more on PSI-Pay and partner sponsorships, visit www.psi-pay.com or follow on Twitter @PSIPayLtd.

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Wealth & Finance International | April 2016

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Brexit – Business Uncertainty and Working in the Pre-Brexit Environment Markets do not respond well to uncertainty. Six months ago, clients told us they were fairly confident that the UK would vote to remain in Europe. But as the ‘vote leave’ campaign has made headway in opinion polls, that certainty has slipped, and concurrently, businesses are formalising concerns about a so-called Brexit. In some sectors, that risk is causing market players to hit the ‘pause’ button.

In real estate, for example, the air of uncertainty amongst both buyers and sellers is making everyone cautious and leading to stagnation.

Some companies have no projects planned to finish after the first quarter of 2016, while others have been halted at the investment committee stage, while investors await the outcome of the referendum. The ‘Brexit clause’ is also becoming a more common tool, as it allows companies to amend terms, including payment terms, in the event of a vote to leave, given the currency turbulence that is predicted to follow a Brexit vote. Some agreements are now even made conditional upon the UK remaining in the EU.

Another area of legal uncertainty concerns litigation. Under the current regime, an English judgment may be enforced anywhere in the EU based on EU rules, but following a Brexit, that would cease to be the case – unless a new regime can be agreed directly with some or all of the remaining EU Member States. There is a question, therefore, as to how enforceable an English judgment would be in the future, and it may be sensible to consider arbitration as an alternative to English court litigation in the interim.

Commercial parties could be thinking about these sorts of issues now, with regards to their contracts, and they can take certain steps to help address some of the challenges that might arise. There is a particular risk with regards to commercial contracts, which are premised on the continuing operation of the EU and on England being subject to EU rules. Clients should be thinking now about whether they can add a clause to their contracts, clarifying whether a Brexit constitutes a force majeure, a frustrated event or a material adverse change. These clauses could be applied to new contracts or through amendments to existing contracts.

Elsewhere, companies are actively modelling how they would respond to a Brexit vote. International financial institutions that are based in London and operate across Europe by ‘passporting’, are weighing their options. European banks are confident that they could ‘lift and shift’ operations in relatively short order, either to their ‘home’ city or to another financial centre in the EU, if necessary, while the international banks are likely to base their decisions on whether the UK government could agree a similar passporting system with the EU in the event of Brexit.

Multinationals feel they are resilient and able to adapt to changing circumstances, though one client concedes that “the costs of restructuring do not bare thinking about” and would likely prove a significant distraction for UK plc. That sentiment is repeated across industries and sectors, and explains why companies are waiting to see how the vote plays out before putting concrete measures in place. “The costs are prohibitive,” one client said.

And so, companies can take certain steps to prepare for Brexit, but as the referendum draws closer, uncertainty is rife. Only after the votes are tallied will we truly begin to understand the consequences of a possible Brexit decision and the timetable for Brexit to become effective. EU exit provisions envisage a two year exit process. In reality this could be longer, extending the period of commercial and legal uncertainty further.

The legal uncertainty resulting from Brexit takes many forms. For example, where European laws are directly effective in England, they would cease to apply after the exit becomes effective. It’s unclear whether they will be reflected in new identical UK laws or whether they will be dropped or replaced with different sets of rules. Whitehall lobbyists would certainly have a busy few years!

Company: King & Wood Mallesons Name: Philipp Girardet, EU competition partner Email: Philipp.Girardet@eu.kwm.com Web Address: www.kwm.com/en Address: 10 Queen Street Place, London, EC4R 1BE Telephone: +44 (0)20 7111 2055

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