Benefits of the market

The Specialist Fund Market provides investment managers and their advisers with a global market capable of accepting a variety of corporate structures within a flexible regulatory environment.

Key attributes of the market include:

Regulated by the UK’s Financial Services Authority
Applicants to the Specialist Fund Market will be required to comply with European harmonised standards both at admission, and on an ongoing basis in terms of standards of disclosure and transparency, as detailed in the various FSAP Directives. In the UK, the Financial Services Authority is responsible for approving prospectuses and monitoring issuers’ compliance with ongoing obligations arising from the FSAP Directives.

Acceptance of sophisticated legal structures
The Specialist Fund Market can accept a variety of sophisticated legal structures including limited partnership interests and non-voting share structures allowing the flexibility to create structures that can comply with home country tax or securities laws whilst also allowing access to permanent capital.

Flexibility of an EU-regulated market
As an EU-regulated market, securities will normally be acceptable to institutional mandates. Additionally, the Specialist Fund Market is a regulated market for the purposes of the UCITS Directive.

Some institutional investors seeking to satisfy their mandates may require issuers to apply additional elements of governance and regulation. Where this is the case, applicants and their advisers are able to provide additional tailored disclosures in their prospectuses.

Global profile
The Specialist Fund Market is open to UK and non-UK domiciled investment funds wishing to use London as a centre from which to access permanent global capital.

Efficient secondary market
Liquidity in Specialist Fund Market securities will be facilitated by our world class trading platform, TradElect. Specialist Fund Market securities will be traded on dedicated segments of either the SETS or SETSqx services depending on their anticipated trading pattern and size. For further information on SETS and SETSqx, visit our Traders and brokers section.