Guernsey Favoured By Private Equity Industry

by Jason Gorringe, Tax-News.com, London

15 March 2011

A new survey of chief financial officers has revealed that Guernsey remains the location of choice for private equity fund administration.

In the Private Equity News/State Street CFO survey, just over two-thirds of respondents said that Guernsey was their preferred destination for private equity outsourcing. Jersey and London both received 15% of votes, while Luxembourg was the location of choice for 7.7% of respondents.

Peter Niven, Chief Executive of Guernsey Finance – the promotional agency for the island’s finance industry, said: “This is an extremely strong endorsement of Guernsey’s private equity fund administration offering. We have built a reputation in this asset class during the last decade and this is yet further evidence of the value placed on our experience and expertise by key decision makers within some of the principal players in the sector. This really does reinforce the message that Guernsey is the leading European private equity fund administration centre.”

Private Equity News, in conjunction with sponsor State Street, carried out this online questionnaire on the future of the private equity industry during December last year. The questionnaire was targeted at CFOs (or equivalent) from within the private equity and venture capital industries.

Three-quarters of respondents were CFOs, with the remainder holding the equivalent positions with responsibility for their firm’s finances. Respondents included representatives from a variety of firms across the asset class: buyout; venture capital; growth capital; distressed debt and special opportunities; mezzanine; infrastructure; and private equity real estate. More than half the respondents worked at firms with more than USD1bn of assets under management. Geographically, most respondents were based in Europe but responses were also received from North America, the Middle East and Asia.

These figures come at a time when statistics from the Guernsey Financial Services Commission (GFSC) show that the value of funds under management and administration in Guernsey reached GBP257.4bn at the end of December 2010 – up 6% in the quarter and 40% year on year. The value of private equity funds under management and administration in Guernsey has also grown by around 50% year on year to reach more than GBP65bn at the end of December 2010.

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