The 14th annual GAIM event, the flagship event for the global hedge fund industry in Europe, was held in June in Monaco. PwC is one of the gold sponsors of this event and has been involved in sponsoring this event over last the number of years. The conference attracted over 1000 delegates. PwC presence at the event was strong. Debbie Payne (PwC UK) and Laurent de la Mettrie (PwC Luxembourg) ran a stream session on Efficiency versus Tax Risk; Jerry Dawson (PwC UK), Olwyn Alexander (PwC Ireland) and Noel Reilly (PwC Cayman) ran a stream session on Valuations: Fundamentals Under Assault; and Graham Phillips(PwC UK) moderated a main conference plenary session entitled "Assessing the conclusions of the two principal industry working parties on either side of the Atlantic". This was the first international discussion on the differences between the UK HFSB (Hedge Fund Standards Board) published best practice standards and the President's Working Group proposals for hedge fund best practices. As with previous years we also hosted a party on the opening night which attracted 255 attendees, which was around a quarter of all those at the conference.
Contact - Olwyn Alexander, +353 1 792 8719, olwyn.m.alexander@ie.pwc.com
PwC is one of the main sponsors of this event and hosted a champagne reception celebrating the opening of the IFIA/NICSA Annual Global Funds Conference.This year marked the 10th anniversary of the conference and the conference was held in Carton House in May 2008.
In addition to the many relevant conference sessions there was a number of keynote addresses, including for example, ‘The impact of the credit crunch’ from Tiarnan O’Mahoney, CEO of ISTC. The Minister for Finance, Brian Lenihan also spoke at the opening ceremony and dinner.
To take advantage of the facilities available at Carton House, winner of the ‘European Golf Resort of the Year 2008’, there was also opportunity for conference delegates to play in a golf competition. This year, the golf competition was played on the O’Meara course, designed by Open and US Masters Champion, Mark O’Meara. Activities for non-golfers were also available.
Contact - Ken Owens, +353 1 792 8542, ken.owens@ie.pwc.com
The annual conference on the globalisation of investment funds took place in June in Bermuda. As sponsors of this event PwC hosted a welcome reception and dinner on the opening night.
There were a number of interesting topics discussed including Sovereign Wealth Funds and the future of UCITS. There were a number of PwC attendees from many different countries and Richard Grueter from PwC Boston spoke on new issues in regulation and valuation of alternative investments.
Contact - Marie O'Connor, +353 1 792 6308, marie.o.connor@ie.pwc.com
