Pre-marketing is (indirectly) providing information or communication on investment strategies or investment ideas to potential EU investors to test their interest in a fund which is not yet established. In pre-marketing, no hard commitments may be collected and all information which are communicated are in draft form.
Key Points:
Initiation: For regulatory reasons, pre-marketing is carried out by the AIFM (Roundtable), not by the fund sponsor.
Content: Pre-marketing materials give a preliminary overview of potential investment strategies or ideas/funds without presenting a finalized LPA or subscription agreement. No subscription agreement can even be showed.
Commitment: Investors may not commit / subscribe to a fund which is in pre-marketing. They may however express their interest to invest in such potential fund (and indicate the amount of their expected investment) but they will be free to ultimately decide not to invest.
Formalities: The fund sponsor must decide in which EU jurisdictions the fund will be pre-marketed. Roundtable will take care of the notification to the regulators.
Costs: To date, pre-marketing is not subject to any fee from the national regulators in the EU.