This year's Guernsey Funds Forum in London will be hosted by ITV news anchor Alastair Stewart OBE and feature key industry speakers including leading venture capitalist Jon Moulton.
Mr Stewart chaired last year's Guernsey Funds Forum and he will also host this year's event at the Grange St Paul's Hotel in London on Wednesday 11 May.
Peter Niven, Chief Executive of Guernsey Finance – the promotional agency for the Island's finance industry, said: "Last year's event was a huge success in terms of the number of delegates, the quality of the debates and panellists and of course, Alastair Stewart was very professional in leading us through the programme.
"We received extremely positive feedback after last year's forum and now the aim is to build on that and deliver a similarly, if not even more, impressive event this May. Alastair is on board again to make sure our panellists get to the heart of the matters at hand and with a line-up of leading speakers, including Jon Moulton, I'm confident that we are in for an very interesting afternoon."
As well as Mr Moulton, the Founder of Better Capital, speakers include Anne Holm Rannaleet, from IK Investment Partners and who will be speaking on behalf of the European Venture Capital Association (EVCA); Thomas Olsson from Prosperity Capital Management; Benoit Le Bret from international law firm Gide Loyrette Nouel and who is also a consultant to the EVCA; Guy Rainbird, Public Affairs Director at the Association of Investment Companies (AIC); and Darko Hajdukovic from the London Stock Exchange.
The half-day event is entitled The Changing Face of the Global Funds Industry and includes three panel discussions.
The first session will provide an examination of the current developments surrounding the EU's Alternative Investment Fund Managers (AIFM) Directive. Session two will look at the current trends and issues in relation to raising capital and in particular from the emerging markets of Brazil, Russia, India and China – the BRIC countries. The final discussion of the afternoon will focus on alternative asset classes and what might be the best performer in the future.
Mr Niven added: "This event comes at a particularly opportune moment given the large amount of change that the sector is facing and especially the continued focus on the EU AIFM Directive. The content of the sessions is extremely topical and looking at the quality of the panellists then I believe we will have some very insightful debate that will be relevant to a broad cross-section of practitioners working in the sector."
As well as the conference, there will also be an exhibition of Guernsey service providers, including the Island's leading fund administrators, custodians, legal practices and accountancy firms.
The Guernsey Funds Forum takes place on Wednesday 11th May 2011 at the Grange St. Pauls Hotel, 10 Godliman Street, London, EC4V 5AJ. It will start with registration from 12.30pm and when the programme concludes at 5.30pm there will be a drinks networking reception. The event is supported by the EVCA, the AIC, Legal Week and www.funddomiciles.com. For more information about delegate, exhibition and sponsorship opportunities contact Fiona Murray by email events@fionamurray.net.
The net asset value of funds under management and administration in Guernsey reach a record high of £257 billion at the end of December 2010 – up £14.3 billion (5.9%) during the final quarter of last year and £73.2 billion (39.7%) year on year.
For more information about Guernsey's finance industry please visit www.guernseyfinance.com.
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