Daisy Mae is excited. Not even the gloomy Luxembourg summer weather can dampen her mood. She has been sent from Houston, Texas, to set up a railway infrastructure investment fund for Texas Gulf Adventures (TGV). They aim to launch the fund by January 2025.
As Daisy leaves the airport in the evening rain, she orders an Uber while sipping an «Iced Brown Sugar Oat Shaken Espresso» from Starbucks. After a short ride and a 10-euro tip for the driver, she settles into her room at the DoubleTree, eating avocado toast and feeling quite at home.
The next morning, after a refreshing run, Daisy enjoys her oats while browsing through Investment Officer. She encounters a barrage of unfamiliar acronyms: AIFMD, Ucits, Dora, SFDR, GDPR, and Mifid II. She develops a headache trying to reconcile these standards with US ones.
Bank account
Daisy’s firm has decided that appointing a management company, rather than creating one, is the fastest way to market. Her first meeting is with Mr. Pierre L’Épargne in the Cloche d’Or. It goes well, but Pierre requests certified original passports and six months to open a bank account.
Questionnaire
Her next meeting is with Mr. Hans Geldmacher in Grevenmacher. Daisy is shocked by the Uber fare and wonders why the offices are so far away. The meeting goes well, but Hans asks her to complete an SFDR questionnaire before he can proceed with the onboarding process.
By the end of her first day of meetings, Daisy is thoroughly confused. None of the discussions were about the investments Texas Gulf Adventures wanted to make but rather about administrative issues. She found it strange that Pierre and Hans hadn’t done more to get a deal signed.
At around 9 PM, while strolling through the Place d’Armes, her CEO, Tex Cashmore, calls to inform her that their anchor investor now wants the fund launched by December 1st, meaning they need to expedite the setup. She hopes tomorrow’s meeting goes better.
Indexation
The next day, Daisy heads to Kirchberg for a meeting with Mrs. Giulia Soldini, with whom she has been corresponding for 18 months. She is hopeful a contract can be signed since the price had already been agreed upon. However, Giulia explains that the price is now 10 percent higher due to indexation.
Options
The meeting ends earlier than expected, and as Daisy arrives at the Gare to catch the next TGV to Paris, she looks around and wonders if Luxembourg is truly open for business. It seems impossible to launch the fund within the required budget and timeframe.
As Daisy Mae hurtles along at 300 km/h, she wonders if the French could launch her fund faster or if her next stops in Amsterdam, Frankfurt, and Dublin will be more fruitful.
Gregory Kennedy is a columnist for Investment Officer Luxembourg. His columns appear every other week. He also works as a business development manager at Finsoft Luxembourg.