Baker & McKenzie has assisted Amundi Immobilier in obtaining the first license for the marketing of a foreign real estate investment fund to private investors in Austria under the Alternative Investment Funds regime. The OPCIMMO fund, managed by Amundi Immobilier, was introduced in France in 2011. Now, it will be offered to private investors in another country for the first time.
The fund mainly invests in commercial real estate in ten different countries. As regards Vienna, the portfolio includes the 113-meter Florido Tower and the Solaris building in St. Marx.
According to the EU directive regarding alternative investment funds, Member States are free to decide whether or not to admit cross-border marketing to private investors at all. The Austrian AIFM Act provides for this opportunity. "However, a precondition for the marketing license is among others that the foreign investment fund is comparable to a domestic investment fund," said Baker & McKenzie Partner Dieter Buchberger. "Equivalence to domestic real estate investment funds primarily requires a comparable investment horizon and investor protection. In constructive exchanges the Financial Market Authority confirmed that the OPCIMMO is, in fact, comparable to an Austrian open-ended real estate investment fund."
Buchberger and his team had previously advised Amundi on the acquisition of Bawag P.S.K. Invest in 2014 (as reported by CEE Legal Matters on October 29, 2014). Since the admission of the OPCIMMO fund to the Austrian market, he has also advised Amundi Immobilier and Amundi Austria on the legal aspects of the marketing of the fund in Austria.
In addition to Buchberger, the Vienna-based Baker & McKenzie team consisted of Partner Stephan Gross, Senior Associate Franz Josef Arztmann, and Associate Andrea Eigner.
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