Ireland competes with Luxembourg over Brexit rush

Changes to limited partnership law will bolster a growing private equity services sector, claims fund accountant.

Ireland has a good chance of winning a share of the private equity market from Luxembourg as more investment managers seek alternative European Union bases, according to one fund accountant.

The service-provider sector has been boosted by an influx of private real estate managers into Ireland following the 2008 financial crisis, said Ray Kelly, a partner in the financial services team at EisnerAmper Ireland, a professional services group.

“There’s been a large inflow of private equity managers buying real estate during the period post-crash and pre-recovery in Ireland,” said Kelly. “This has led the local service providers to develop private equity expertise, and we’ve now got the capability to support an expanding private equity market in Ireland. These private equity managers have put down strong roots in Ireland.”

Following the announcement that Ireland is tailoring its limited partnership laws to private equity, Kelly said the country is in direct competition with Luxembourg to attract private equity managers.

“We think we’ll win more than our fair share of private equity work from other jurisdictions. Ireland’s fund industry is bigger and has more service providers than that of Luxembourg,” he said. “On the limited partnership law, Ireland’s government has listened to the asset management industry’s feedback on developing our funds market.”

The Investment Limited Partnership (Amendment Bill) 2017 would allow for aspects such as carried interest and complex fund accounting, which are not directly available in the existing structure.