FRANCE Trends and Developments Contributed by: Rima Maitrehenry, Racine
• such premium cannot exceed 50% of the life insurance contract’s assets. OFS are now eligible for unit-linked life insur - ance contracts under the same conditions as FPS, FPCI and SLP. The premium of minimum EUR100,000 has been lowered to EUR5,000 if the investment through the unit-linked life insur - ance contract is made as part of an arbitrage mandate. If the FPS, SLP and OFS benefit from the ELTIF label, the condition relating to com - pliance with the above-mentioned 50% invest - ment quota is no longer required. If the FPCI, FPS, SLP and OFS benefit from the ELTIF label and are opened to retail investors, the condi - tions regarding the experience and knowledge as well as the minimum premium of EUR100,000 are no longer required. Assets eligible for retire - ment savings plans have been expanded to include FPCI, FPS, SLP, OFS and ELTIFs under the same conditions as those described above for unit-linked life insurance contracts. Life insurance contracts and retirement savings are likely to become a preferred distribution channel for fund managers currently struggling with fundraising towards institutional investors. However, this will force fund managers to struc - ture investment vehicles that are compatible with the constraints governing life insurance contracts and savings plans – ie: • funds eligible for being unit-linked; • funds that benefit from a recognised green label or that are otherwise directed towards green investments; or • funds that benefit from the ELTIF label. ELTIF 2.0 transposition, and improvement of the structuring of French investment funds The Act supports the development of ELTIFs in France. ELTIFs are alternative investment funds
that pursue the objective of raising capital and channelling it into long-term European invest - ment in the real economy, in line with the EU’s objective of smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. ELTIFs can be marketed to retail (non- professional) investors or to professional inves - tors only. The ELTIF Regulation does not create a new cat - egory of fund vehicles. Its rules are applicable in parallel with legal forms of fund vehicles recog - nised by national laws, without replacing them. Therefore, a French vehicle must have a legal regime compatible with ELTIFs in order for such vehicle to benefit from the ELTIF label. In this context, the Act empowers the government to legislate by ordinance, in order to adapt French law to ELTIF requirements and modernise the range of French alternative investment funds. Such ordinance was enacted on 3 July 2024 ( Ordonnance 2024-662 – the “Ordinance”) and contains simplification and modernisation meas - ures designed to make the French legal frame - work more attractive. These measures consist of the creation of a new vehicle, the société de libre partenariat spéciale (SLPS) and the enactment of new structuring options for French investment funds (see the following). Creation of a new fund vehicle In order to improve the attractiveness of French funds, especially for non-French investors, a French investment fund called the société de libre partenariat (SLP) (mirroring the functions of limited partnerships, with a general partner and limited partners) was introduced into French law in 2015. The SLP has a legal personality unlike certain non-French limited partnerships. The Ordinance also introduced a new form of unin - corporated SLP, the SLPS (as mentioned above), which does not have legal personality. However, an SLPS needs to be registered with the com -
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