Guidelines

As well as complying with general Governance guidelines, what additional factors should the Board of an investment vehicle defined as an Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) consider when appointing and monitoring a regulated Alternative Investment Fund Manager (AIFM)?

Most large real estate investment vehicles need to be managed by regulated managers or AIFMs. Although INREV’s guidelines apply equally to regulated and unregulated managers, there are additional specific considerations concerning regulated managers in order to comply with the applicable regulation. This scenario may typically occur where an AIF within the scope of the AIFMD appoints an external AIFM as its manager. In this case, there are a number of important activities which the Board of the AIF delegates to the manager, but which it must monitor in order to ensure that the AIFM is performing such tasks reasonably and in compliance with legal and regulatory requirements.

Important tasks delegated to the AIFM must include portfolio management and risk management and will often also include administration and marketing. The AIFM may also, for example, provide support to the Board of the AIF in the performance of its duties. In addition, the AIFM commonly identifies and manages key service provider relationships on behalf of the AIF, such as depositories and auditors, and under the AIFMD has a responsibility to manage the valuation of the AIF’s assets and liabilities on behalf of the AIF to which it has been appointed. Clearly, the Board of the AIF has to be comfortable with the competencies and performance of the AIFM and will normally perform a degree of due diligence on the AIFM pursuant to this goal.

There are two key elements to this due diligence role:

• Initial due diligence
• Ongoing due diligence

Both initial and ongoing due diligence should be documented.

Initial due diligence

Before appointing an AIFM, the Board of the AIF should perform initial due diligence. The initial due diligence should, among other things, assess the ability of the proposed AIFM to perform the tasks to be delegated to it, and its ability to comply with the requirements of the AIFMD.

One of the key indicators for the Board of the AIF will be authorisation and supervision by the relevant supervisory authorities. Other typical factors which the Board of the AIF may consider may include:

• Scope of activities and experience of the AIFM;
• Knowledge, skills, experience and reputation of the Board, senior management and key staff, including the portfolio manager and risk manager;
• Organisation of the AIFM, including human and technical infrastructure, and the control arrangements of the risk management, compliance and internal audit functions;
• Delegation arrangements, and ability of the AIFM to perform adequate due diligence and ongoing monitoring;
• The identity and nature of the shareholders of the AIFM;
• Values statement or code of conduct, and how they are implemented in practice;
• Segregation of risk and portfolio management functions;
• Independence of the internal/external valuer.

From a practical perspective, the AIFM could provide the Board of the AIF with part or all of its application for authorisation to the supervisory authorities, and/or its handbook describing its organisational structure, policies and procedures, to assist the Board of the AIF in its assessment of the ability of the AIFM to comply with the requirements of the AIFMD.

Ongoing due diligence

The Board of the AIF should perform ongoing due diligence to assess whether the AIFM continues to have the ability to perform the tasks which have been delegated to it and to comply with AIFMD requirements. From an ongoing compliance perspective, the AIFM should provide the Board of the AIF with one or more reports covering:

• Risk management, including, among other items, KPIs on compliance with the risk limits and the risk profile of the AIF as disclosed to investors;
• Compliance with the regulatory requirements, including in particular KPIs on the compliance of the AIF;
• Internal audit reports, providing, among other items, an evaluation on whether risk management, control, and governance systems are functioning as intended.

Typically, each of these reports would be AIF-specific. In each case, the report should also cover remedial action to correct any deficiencies identified in the current or previous reports. The Board of the AIF should receive these reports at a frequency which is appropriate to the activities of the AIF, and at least annually.

In addition, when the AIF is appointing key service providers such as auditors and depositories, or providing representations to them, and when approving reports and accounts of the AIF, they are relying on the output of many of the key functions of the AIFM. Such reliance may be formally constituted in the form of reports and representations from the AIFM to the AIF.