Speaking at a conference in Madrid, Mr Arenillas said that so far 16 different gestoras, or fund management companies, have received authorisation to manage hedge funds in the country, including existing asset managers already offering traditional investment products in the Spanish market, as well as some newly-created firms. Among the authorised firms are the investment arms of Spain’s largest banks including Santander, BBVA and Caja Madrid, and some international managers such as Deutsche Bank, UBS and Barclays.
In addition to those, the regulator announced that another 18 fund managers have applied for authorisation to get into this new sector. Mr Arenillas said that if all these applications succeed “there will be soon more than 30 authorised gestoras, which means around 30 per cent of the total gestoras registered in Spain will be able to offer hedge funds”. The first vehicles to be launched will include both single manager products and funds of funds.
Santiago Moro, managing director at Madrid-based fund of hedge funds manager CM Capital Markets Bolsa, said that in terms of the number of firms applying for authorisation and the speed of the process, matters have progressed as expected. “What was slow was the previous process of approval of regulation concerning this type of investments,” he said, adding that there are still issues that need to be clarified regarding the conflict between the CNMV’s rules and the law on notice period and reimbursements which mainly affects fund of funds operations.
Mr Moro explained that his firm currently offers offshore hedge fund portfolios to institutional investors. “We decided at some point, mainly in the interests of acquiring a track record, to launch offshore vehicles, and we will now adapt those vehicles to the Spanish legislation. “Once the regulations provide for hedge funds in Spain, people might find it more convenient to invest in Spanish funds,” he commented.
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