Guernsey Funds Forum 2026 Panel 2: Guernsey: the gateway to raising capital

Full Transcript

Panel 2: Guernsey - the gateway to raising capital 

Daisy McAndrew 

So, in this session, we are broadening our horizons a bit more globally, and obviously geopolitics, not just domestic politics, which is in something of a crisis today, but geopolitics, of course, deteriorating hugely in the last few years, whether that's in Ukraine, whether that's in the Middle East. We're all facing mounting pressures, as John so decisively points out earlier, defence spending has to increase that’s now, for most people, a given. “How?”, “Where?”, “When?” are the questions.  

So, in this panel, we're really going to be examining how private markets can support plugging that gap in defence spending, specifically how Guernsey might be able to help, and we’ll also be touching on other areas of regulation, liquid capital and so on. But I'm going to ask Peter to kick us off. Obviously, as I said, it's been a tough environment around the world. Guernsey's Private Investment Fund went through not one but two revisions last year, removing the upper cap, various other things. Can you explain to us what that was and what it means? 

Peter Boulle 

Well, I think in general terms that the reforms in 2025 to the PIF regime just greatly simplified the regime in Guernsey and made it far more understandable for fund manager clients who, you know, we were trying to explain the regime to with the help of Guernsey Council, to understand their structuring options in Guernsey. So, it made the process of establishing and obtaining licenses for Guernsey fund structures far simpler, far faster, getting back to the speed point, more structuring flexibility. So, for fund managers who have regulated entities offshore that could act as the manager of a Guernsey structure, you didn't necessarily need to have a Guernseylicensed management entity anymore.  

You know, a clear range of investors to whom the Qualifying PIF could be marketed;  sophisticated investors through private offerings, and not necessarily any need to prepare a PPM for the fund which, for those familiar is a sort of big, long marketing document with all the commercial details and information about fund manager alongside legal and regulatory disclosures, and actually, there's a real trend in the markets towards not necessarily producing a PPM if it’s not need for the particular fundraising in question. So, the reforms were very well received, and we were already using Guernsey structures, as Mark on the prior panel was alluding to, exactly the same across all kinds of different use cases. And that has very much continued, if not accelerated following the reforms.  

I think also the reforms were very helpful in being positive changes for first time fund managers and emerging fund managers. And that has been an area that I think there’s a lot of first-time funds in the market, and so having that regime available for those managers is fantastic, and I was going to talk a bit about what Guernsey could do next, but for first time fund managers, but I'm delighted to hear as of the seminar this morning that it'salready happening with the Fund Foundry team. I think, you know, beyond just having the structures and regime in place that’s friendly to first-time fund managers, you know, at the end of the day, the PIF regime is for all fund managers, from massive global asset managers down to the emerging managers. And I think having more of an ecosystem and a focus, and handholding for those first-time managers navigating the regime is a fantastic development and will be really fruitful going forward. 

Daisy McAndrew 

Okay, that’s all very interesting. Tony, I would love to hear about Spitfire. What are the investments that you're making? Why Guernsey? What’s your experience been like? 

Tony Bienstock 

That’s a fairly broad spectrum. So, Spitfire is private equity firm. It's actually a hybrid fund. We're focused on investing in early-stage weaponry. So late-stage venture growth equity in a few larger-cap transactions. As you guys know, the market is very large. So, NATO's trends call it a trillion and a half a year. The market in general spends 2.5 trillion a year. Why Guernsey? Guernsey was quite different than the other jurisdictions that we looked at. So, while I've been told, I guess, as the American, it’s okay to talk about things like Luxembourg. So, Luxembourg was fee-laden and regulatory-laden and Jersey was an interesting option, but our general focus was and belief was, Guernsey was a little more fashion-forward and regulatorily flexible.  

And so for a first-time fund and a first-time team investing in defence, that mattered enormously, because in many of these jurisdictions, we were the first defence fund that anyone had dealt with, and so there was no template on how to deal with defence funding. Guernsey made that efficient. They were, as Jack mentioned at the very outset, essentially a solutions-oriented group. They had pre calls with us to understand what was going on and direct us. During the process, they helped direct things, all which made it very efficient, very quick, and managed cost, which for a first-time fund was terribly important. 

Daisy McAndrew 

And how relevant was it for you - or how much of a challenge was it for you, if it was a challenge - the way that defence is perceived?  

Tony Bienstock 

There is, I think many of you understand, a rapidly changing perception about defence. So historically, defence has been an area that the major investor, pension funds, the insurance companies, have avoided. In many cases, their investment policy statements have language that effectively prohibits investment in lethality. So, it's a hard area, or was a hard area to invest in. There also wasn't much to invest in, if you think about it, over the last 50 years, the only real investment in defence has been investing in the primes, in the Rheinmetall's, in the Boeings, and the other very large companies that contract with governments, and that's on the public sector - there was no real innovation. And so, there were no new companies that you're investing in. Hence, there was no real private capital related to it.  

That's changing. Now, all of a sudden, you see capital allocated to defence budgets, Europe is moving towards 5%. If you talk to the Middle East, in Israel, it's existential. And Asia, Japan, Australia recognise the threat of China. So, money is moving in very aggressively, and then all of a sudden, there's an enormous amount of innovation. And I'll give you some real examples. So, I’ve spent the last 35 years in private equity in the United States. Everything is intermediated. We just started fundraising. We have not turned the deal machine on. In the last 90 days, we’ve seen over 60 transactions, none of which is intermediated. What that means is purchaseprices are much better, and you can structure things in a much more friendly manner. So, it's a very exciting area, and growing area to invest in. 

Daisy McAndrew 

Tony, thank you. Louise, Tony has really explained how things are changing so incredibly fast within defence and investing and so on. But obviously all these other changes that are going on in the world that are disruptingsupply chains, disrupting politics and geopolitics. What does that mean from where you sit? 

Louise Pilgrim 

Yeah, so I guess, just as a bit of a background, we invest in energy supply chain, so industrial companies in the energy supply chain, so we're not always affected by commodity prices, per se, but obviously any disruption in the supply chain, as we've seen through the conflict in Ukraine, with Russia having to come out and people having to find alternative solutions for that. And now with the Middle East, you know, we are definitely seeing that there's, you know, a disruption in the market. For our portfolio companies, they are generally fairly well insulated from it, because our investment strategy has always been to buy and build, to diversify, so that we're not dependent on any one source, and to make sure that we've got broad customer base. So, we do have some companies that are based within the Middle East, those companies are obviously disrupted in terms of the fact that they can’t have people on the ground in offices there so they may be working remotely. For some of our training centres that we've got there, that’s moving on to e-learning. We also have some companies where they may be shipping a product to the Middle East, which obviously with the Strait of Hormuz coming to a complete standstill, just means that all of those revenues and the EBITDA is moving out to the right.  

But what we do see is that that is going to be coming back again, and we think that there's going to be more investment coming in. We think that it's going to change the opportunity that's out there. So, from our perspective, we see that there's going to be a bit of a change in the thought process on here. Resilience is going to be one of the key things that people are going to be looking for, so in terms of energy security and reliability. So we think that there's going to be an increased investment going forwards in critical components and engineer products, maintenance and life cycle and services, because everybody wants everything to be running for longer, more efficiently, and digital and optimisation technology, again, those are going to be key areas to invest in, as well as efficiency, because if you can reduce your energy usage, obviously that reduces your reliance on things. And so, you know, there will be a structural shift to where supplies of energy are coming from, whether that be green, with an underlying oil and gas coming through, but you're still going to need to have a diverse supply of that and that efficiency side of things is going to be key 

Daisy McAndrew 

Very, very interesting. Without wanting to sound, Ruth, to like “What first attracted you to the multi-millionaire Paul Daniels?” and that style of questions - but in that vein, what did first attract you to Guernsey?  

Ruth Murray 

For us at Gresham House, Guernsey has been home for our funds ever since current guise came along in 2014 but for me, specifically, I'm a co-fund manager of Gresham House’s biodiversity creation fund, and in launching our second vintage of that fund, being that we are in the business of creating landscape scale habitat restoration all through England – this was really catalysed by the environment act and biodiversity net gain requirements on developers - we really wanted to position our fund in a credible and just have a real sort of regulatory framework sitting over the top of it that could help passport that fund outside of UK, through Europe and Asia.  

And the key thing that I'm really delighted to be able to talk about today is the fact that the Guernsey regime allowed my fund to get the very first Guernsey natural capital fund designation earlier this year, and that is the world first, both for Gresham House and indeed, for Guernsey. And that goes a really long way to giving that kind of regulatory framework and passport for my fund. And that designation isn't just a tick box, you know, it'sactually a really stringent set of frameworks that we need to adhere to, it requires monitoring, it requires measurable natural capital outcomes. So, this is very much more than just a self-certification that managers make, and actually in an environment where greenwashing is a real problem, having both our own fund mandate sitting alongside a Guernsey designation, together with the EU SFDR Article Nine designation that we've got really adds a huge amount of credibility when we take our fund and our fundraising as we currently are.  

I think what I would also say is that we're seeing it matter outside of England, and we've talked about different jurisdictions and different domicile for funds, but it is really helping us in our conversations in Asia and Europe, just to show that level of rigour sitting behind the claims and statements that we're making.  

Daisy McAndrew 

And what about the geopolitical backdrop to all this? What difference does that make to your fund?  

Ruth Murray 

I mean, I think the geopolitical backdrop is making it hard for many, many fund managers in our area, but what it also does is create quite a lot of opportunities, because it's actually influencing where capital wants to go. And actually, for my funds at the moment, earlier in the year, Defra, together with MI5 and MI6, published a report that really set out how the biodiversity crisis is actually a matter of national security. So, we're thinking about defence and defence spending, having a fund that's actually investing in biodiversity to try and stop that crisis actually feeds very much into that geopolitical tailwind that we're seeing play out right in front of us.  

Daisy McAndrew 

Yeah, interesting. Peter, coming back to you, just listening to the different experiences of the panellists and thinking they've all found help and good service in Guernsey but is there more that Guernsey can do, do you think?  

Peter Boulle 

Well, I think part of it is, you know, around the trumpeting of the achievements, and achievements like the one that Ruth describing, you know, I think having these being trumpeted so that other fund managers are aware that the, you know, for example, marketing a Guernsey fund to EU investors under NPPR regimes is a perfectly viable option and route for marketing of funds, for raising capital. 

Equally, you know, I think we're looking more at the first-time fund manager, you know, I think more of, as I was mentioning, more of an ecosystem around that to really help focus on the particular pain points that the first-time fund managers have in terms of, sort of the fixed cost burden, the nonlinear progression that they often experience getting to the first blind pool fund that - sort of thing. Having an organisation, a system that is going to help show them exactly the route to set up the first fund, have a, for example, a regime around deal-by-deal investing and warehousing vehicles and that sort of thing, alongside the QPIF regime and so forth. That would be very helpful to help galvanise more capital to move to and then successfully raise from Guernsey. 

Daisy McAndrew 

And Tony, anything to add, from your perspective, of the pain points that you think could do with some salvation? 

Tony Bienstock 

Regulatory is certainly one. Cost is certainly another, and then just simply help as a defence fund, since there was no template. a pain point that Guernsey actually managed beautifully was walking us through what was allowed and what was not allowed. And if you think about it, of course, the role is to defend the island's reputation. And so, who wants to have nuclear or biological or chemical weapons on the front page and have that associated with Guernsey? Nobody. And so, working with Guernsey, where they ask really useful clarifying questions to better understand, what is it that you're going to do? What's prohibited? Can you give us a doctrine?Would the NATO doctrine work? Well, the NATO doctrine allows for investment, for example, in nuclear - we won't do nuclear. So, it actually helped us, because it clarified in our own documentation: here's what we will do,and more importantly, here's exactly what we won’t do.  

Daisy McAndrew 

Yeah, very interesting. Ruth, as far as you're concerned... In fact, Louise, I want to come back to you, just picking up on anything that the panel has said about pain points, anything that you would throw in the ring? 

Louise Pilgrim 

I mean, I think wherever you set up the fund, KYC, AML, is always a pain point. And I think anything in the industry as a whole that can be brought in to streamline that and to ease that process would be helpful. I think one of Guernsey’s selling points is, you know, that you can have LPs in pretty much any jurisdiction, and the fact that you have tax transparency that can go through there, and repatriate funds to them that they can pay taxes intheir own jurisdiction is very important selling point. But you also have that regulatory framework around you. But I just think that Guernsey’s DNA in private equity. They’ve been looking after private equity funds for the last 30 years plus, and they should sell that. 

Daisy McAndrew 

Ruth, would you agree? 

Ruth Murray 

Absolutely and actually, from a sustainability perspective, because I know that that's an area that Guernsey really wants to be a sort of frontrunner in and a differentiator. And whilst I think I agree with everyone, from a general perspective that cutting down the red tape and making it easier to do business, is a really, really key quality that Guernsey brings, but from a sustainability perspective, actually having the kinds of standards and the rigour that it has with the Green Fund and the Natural Capital Fund designation and so on is actually really helpful, because in that particular market, that level of rigour and credibility is so important in actually making these sorts of funds and attracting these sorts of managers to want to come to Guernsey, because it's more than a marketing label, it actually really does add a layer of credibility. 

Daisy McAndrew 

And Peter, some say that there are lots of misconceptions about doing business or investing in Guernsey. Would you agree and if there are misconceptions, what are they? 

Peter Boulle 

Well, I think you know, a key misconception, and you know, speaking to, for example, a first-time fund manager, clients have already been sort of steered down the Luxembourg route, for example, or another EU or AIFIM structure, it is that misconception that it will be more challenging to market to EU investors under national private placement regimes than seeking to raise capital with the benefit of the marketing passports if you go with an EU structure. And it's certainly true that there will be circumstances context in which it makes perfect sense to go down the route of getting the passport and having an EU structure where you can access capital that way.  

But equally, if your fund is being targeted at very specific, maybe a smaller number of EU jurisdictions, investors from those jurisdictions, you know, there are real benefits to going down a Guernsey structure, National Private Placement Regime route. And the benefits, I think we heard some of them on the previous panel, you know, the cost savings, administrative simplicity, and also a degree of control over your fund, your structure, because, you know, there's, there's less involvement of third-party AIFIMs, depositories, etc, than would be the case with a Guernsey fund structure. So, I think that that misconception is something that I think has to be challenged. And again, part of that, as I was saying before, is about trumpeting the very good experiences people have had. And also I think there's probably a role for organisations like Guernsey Finance, the GFSC and so forth to perhaps provide more guidance and assistance to fund managers considering Guernsey structures, you know, if it’s like template documents, compliance manuals, whatever it may be, guidance on time frames, etc, so they're clear on how to approach that process using a Guernsey fund structure that might, helpfully, might hopefully help to, sort of, you know, dispel some of the myths. 

Daisy McAndrew 

Tony, as far as, just again, reflecting back into what John said at the beginning when he was laying down, broadly saying “Yes, a trillion, blah, blah, blah hurray for you, but Guernsey should be looking to double that”. I want to ask the whole panel, is that reasonable? Can you see that happening? 

Tony Bienstock 

Absolutely. Look, we're trying to raise a billion pounds. We'd love to be a significant participant in walking down that path. I think our experience has been as easy as any experience I have had starting a fund and I've been doing this for a long time. Especially given what I've already shared, which is that we were on the cutting edge on the defence side. So, we were breaking new ground with Guernsey on figuring out how to, if you will, create a template. I don't think, to answer your question directly, I don't think there's any question in our minds that that will happen. We’d love to be a significant part of that.  

Daisy McAndrew 

Very confident. Peter? 

Peter Boulle 

I don't see any reason why it shouldn't happen. I think maybe some of the sources of financing will change, so where that capital is coming from will probably change. The industry is evolving in terms of where the weight of capital is coming from, probably shifting a bit more towards the East, Middle East, and also obviously more of a focus on private wealth and retail channels. So, I think the next trillion of assets under management will come from perhaps slightly different sources than the previous and Guernsey may well need to evolve its regulation structures to better service those sources of capital going forward. But I think the jurisdiction has already shown a lot of nimbleness to date, and so no doubt will continue to do so. 

Daisy McAndrew 

Ruth, Peter makes a valid point. Yes, the second trillion probably will come, but it will probably come from different sources. Does that matter? Specifically to you, just thinking about where those funds are coming from, ifthey are moving further and further East. 

Ruth Murray 

In terms of the sources of capital? No, what Guernsey provides is a regulatory framework that allows us to crowd in capital in a responsible way. I think what actually Guernsey could be doing to help us with that, to get to that extra trillion, is really thinking about how the capital wants to invest from a sector perspective. We talked about the political, geopolitical tailwinds that we've got, and heard from Tony and the defence being a first of its kind in terms of coming to Guernsey, you know, there will be more and more funds, I think, that are specialised to try and attract these different pools of capital from, you know, globally, more diverse funds. And actually, having something like the National Capital Fund, or sector specific support to raise capital, I think will be, would be a really good, really good way they can support us. 

Daisy McAndrew 

Louise, you were nodding.  

Louise Pilgrim 

Yeah, I mean, we've talked a lot about regulation and the different types of fund structures, but, you know, Guernsey is a small place. It's 65,000 people. So, you know, around that scaling to 2 trillion, they're going to have to make sure that all the service providers are able to service that money that's coming in and make sure that they keep that same level of service and the same quality of service, and so that's going to mean that everyone's going to need to be embracing technology and being able to deliver the services that they can as efficiently as possible. And I think that's going to be a challenge. 

Daisy McAndrew 

I think it's fantastic to end on a challenge, and it is bang on time for a coffee break. We are going to break for an hour of chat and shmooze and coffee, and I'm assuming some biscuits and cakes. But for now, please say a very big “Thank you” in the form of clapping to my panel.