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Pryor Cashman’s private investment funds practice encompasses creating and organizing funds, structuring the internal affairs of the sponsors of these funds and managing assets for the sponsors, investors and placement agents of pooled investment vehicles.

In organizing investment pools, we also assist in creating investments that are innovative, either from a regulatory, tax or compliance standpoint. We specialize in structuring and bringing to market sophisticated private fund complexes which incorporate both domestic and foreign investment funds. Such complexes may encompass general equity, hedge, risk arbitrage, market neutral, small cap and distressed securities funds as well as private equity, venture capital and LBO funds. We also are active in the creation of numerous “fund of funds” products and have been involved in the structuring of registered funds and other pooled and derivative investment products offered on a private basis.

Pryor Cashman also represents clients in the formation, management, acquisition and sale of investment management businesses. We have represented numerous private fund sponsors throughout the active life cycle of their funds, from organization through marketing, investment and disposition to dissolution. Other important components of our practice consist of assisting fund managers in a broad range of investment company, investment advisory, broker-dealer and commodity issues as well as counseling investors with respect to Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) examinations.

Examples of our clients and the type of work we have done for them include:

• U.S. and global private fund sponsors: We represent various asset management divisions of some of the world’s largest insurance companies and banks, including the AXA Group. In conjunction with these representations, we have developed a variety of regulatory and/or tax advantaged products meeting the needs of various investors in various jurisdictions. For example, we created a unit trust structure to afford a broad range of Australian taxable investors the opportunity to invest in U.S.-based multimanager products on a tax-advantaged basis. Similarly, we have created various Irish and Luxembourg domiciled fund of funds products to meet the needs of both insurance companies and commercial banks as sponsors, and a widely-dispersed global investor body.
• Large institutional investors: Our clients include large U.S. municipal and government pension systems. In 2006, we advised such investors in investing more than $1 billion in private equity and real estate-related investments with various well-known sponsors, including Clayton Dubilier, Carlyle, JPMorgan Chase, Apollo and Lombard Odier.
• Boutique and institutional placement agents: We have extensive experience with a host of international placement and tax issues, and have been involved in fund raises for Matlin Patterson, Centerbridge, CapMan and other recognized global players with respect to domestic, foreign and global fund raises.
• Investment managers:  We have advised investment managers with respect to the management of third-party sponsored investment pools. We recently advised AXA Investment Managers (Paris) in its role as investment manager to investment pools sponsored by UBS and Wachovia.