FRANCE Law and Practice Contributed by: Rima Maitrehenry, Fabrice Rymarz, Charles-Xavier Vincenti and Stein Mpassi Loufouma, Racine
Any material changes in the information con - tained in the initial marketing notification must be notified to either the AMF or, for AIFs market - ed in France on a cross-border basis, the home state competent authority. If an AIF is no longer marketed in France, a noti - fication to deregister it should be made with either the AMF or, for AIFs marketed in France on a cross-border basis, the home state compe - tent authority. From the date of deregistration, a 36-month “black-out” period is triggered, during which any pre-marketing of the relevant AIF or in respect of similar investment strategies or ideas is prohibited. 2.3.10 Investor Protection Rules See 2.3.9 Post-Marketing Ongoing Require- ments . 2.3.11 Approach of the Regulator The AMF personnel in charge of reviewing filings can be contacted by email or by phone. Face- to-face meetings can be requested from the AMF, but usually these meetings are reserved for exceptional, non-standard issues or trans - actions. However, the marketing process is per - formed online through: • a dedicated email address (passports-AIFM@ amf-france.org) for pre-marketing; and • the ROSA extranet (or via a regulator-to-regu - lator notification mechanism) for marketing. 2.4 Operational Requirements Operational requirements of French AIFs, including the requirement for a custodian, are described in 2.1.1 Fund Structures , 2.3.1 Regu- latory Regime and 2.3.2 Requirements for Non- Local Service Providers . Borrowing restrictions are described in 2.5 Fund Finance .
Details on how an AIF’s assets are valued must be described in the AIF’s legal documentation. Valuation rules depend on the nature of the underlying assets. International standards such as the IPEV valuation guidelines are commonly used in French private equity finds. The fund manager retains responsibility for valuing the AIF’s assets. AIFs investing in listed assets must comply with rules governing insider trading, market abuse and short-selling. Lastly, French fund managers are required to perform know-your-client/anti-money launder - ing checks. 2.5 Fund Finance Other AIFs are not subject to any borrowing restrictions. Per se AIFs could be subject to borrowing restric - tions depending on their legal form. For exam - ple, FCPR and FPCI cannot incur direct cash borrowing in excess of 30% of their net assets, whereas such cash borrowing is not restricted for FPS, SLP and OFS (unless these vehicles are structured to originate loans, in which case their maximum leverage is capped at 30% of their net assets). In general, borrowing restrictions (if any) are dealt with contractually among fund manag - ers and AIFs investors. The various borrowing schemes and structuring depend on whether the AIF is to be considered a leveraged fund or an unleveraged fund. For leveraged funds, borrow - ing is incurred at the level of special purpose vehicles (SPVs) controlled by the AIF, and lend - ers are granted pledges and securities on the assets of such SPVs and/or on the interests held
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