IQ-EQ Podcast IQ-EQ

IQ-EQ’s Hugh Stacey defines greenwashing and shares his insight into how to recognise it. He also outlines how regulators and investors are taking action and what asset managers can do to avoid the greenwashing trap.
Hugh Stacey is the Executive Director of IQ-EQ Investor Solutions, which is a division dedicated to servicing the private markets portfolios of institutional and private investors with the latest technological platforms. Investor Solutions is powered by IQ-EQ Cosmos, our proprietary investor reporting tool that delivers real-time data and analysis across multiple investments, portfolios, funds and asset classes. It includes dedicated ESG dashboards enabling reporting against key ESG criteria and global sustainability benchmarks. 

Private debt is an asset class that has fared strongly against the backdrop of the current global crisis. On 15 April 2021, IQ-EQ hosted an exciting virtual debate on the topic of ‘Debt is dead. Long live debt!’ between experts Richard Vague and Gabriel de Alba, moderated by IQ-EQ’s Group Head of Funds, Justin Partington.
Richard Vague is the Chairman of the Governor’s Woods Foundation and author of The Next Economic Disaster. He has previously been co-founder, chairman and CEO of Energy Plus and the co-founder and CEO of First USA and Juniper Financial. 
Gabriel de Alba is an international investor who has recapitalised, restructured and built businesses across the US, Europe, Canada and emerging markets.
The debate addressed six core statements relating to private debt:
1.     Private debt seems to thrive in crisis only. Agree or disagree?
2.     Private debt is a safe investment in a changing environment. Agree or disagree?
3.     Is this the right time for debt, and how best to execute a debt strategy?
4.     ESG will ensure further transparency in private debt as per other asset classes. For or against?
5.     Covenant-lite loans are often referred to as the scourge of corporate lending. Agree or disagree?
6.     Debt is dead. Long live debt! Agree or disagree?
If you’d prefer to read a recap of the key debate highlights, please click here.

IQ-EQ is thrilled to share a recording of the third webinar within our global series that aims to shed light on the reality and practical issues of economic substance in all key investment hubs. In this session, we focus on the Isle of Man. 
IQ-EQ’s Group Investment Structuring Leader, Pascal Rapallino, kicks off the event by providing a brief overview of the series. He is joined by two expert panellists: Robert Rotherham, Partner at KPMG, and Craig Brown, Managing Director of IQ-EQ Isle of Man.
Robert Rotherham presents the latest updates affecting economic substance in the Isle of Man, while Craig Brown elaborates on the best practices to ensure economic substance compliance.

In this episode, IQ-EQ’s Head of Funds for Jersey, Malcolm Macleod, sits down with Grant Thornton’s Jessica Patel and Ogier’s Sophie Reguengo to discuss the merits of Jersey as a jurisdiction for real estate structuring.
Jessica Patel is a partner in Grant Thornton’s Real Estate & Construction team, based in London. She has significant expertise structuring UK and international property transactions with extensive knowledge advising clients on tax across the property investment and development lifecycle. Jessica works with a number of funds and REITs and leads M&A real estate transactions including due diligence and SPA advice for corporate acquisitions.
Sophie, meanwhile, is a partner in Ogier’s Investment Funds team in Jersey and the firm’s multi-disciplinary Private Equity team. She is a highly experienced investment funds and regulatory lawyer with over 15 years in the funds industry, focused primarily on private equity and real estate structures. She advises private and public funds in relation to fund formation and raising capital, regulation, fund finance, acquisitions and sales, restructuring and winding-up.
Together, they share valuable insight into why Jersey remains a jurisdiction of choice for real estate structuring as well as the most popular Jersey structures and the types of asset/investor using them. They also discuss the recent UK tax changes and wider tax considerations relating to Jersey, before sharing what they see as the hottest topics for real estate in 2021.

In this episode, IQ-EQ’s Jimmy Leong chats to Teo Wee Hwee, Tax Partner and Head of Real Estate & Asset Management at KPMG in Singapore. Together they discuss the taxation of carried interest, a hot topic for GPs and key factor in determining the attractiveness of a location for alternative investment managers. 
Asian investment hubs understand the importance of this aspect; for instance, Singapore offers a special rate on fund managers’ performance fees and Hong Kong has recently issued a proposal to provide a tax concession for carried interest distributed in respect of private equity transactions. 
Wee Hwee has practised tax for over 23 years and has extensive experience in structuring single country and multi-jurisdictional funds with an Asian focus. He has expertise in fund formations and is familiar with fund platforms in Singapore, Luxembourg, Cayman Islands and Labuan among others, as well as tax efficient divestment planning opportunities for funds with multiple exit strategies. He is also an expert in structuring carried interest from both a corporate and personal tax perspective.

A conversation with Mark Fordyce about fully integrated back-office services on the Operational Leaders podcast with host Terrance O’Malley.  The podcast features leaders and innovators who discuss the business of running an asset management business. 

Mark Fordyce had an idea to create a firm that provides a full suite of outsourced services to alternative investment managers.  Then he executed on it.  The result - in 2009 Mark co-founded Blue River Partners which has since grown to become the preeminent outsourced service provider to the alternative asset management industry.
In this episode, Mark talks about starting and growing Blue River Partners and a key early decision to combine legal and compliance support with accounting and operations.  He also discusses the advantages to outsourcing, the trend and gradual acceptance of the outsourcing option.  Along the way, Mark describes the recent acquisition of Blue River Partners by global Investor Services provider IQ-EQ and what that will mean for Blue River and how it reflects ongoing changes in the industry.