This practical handbook gives a comprehensive legal overview of regulatory issues for non-German investment companies which intend to sell the units of their investment funds in Germany. It provides useful legal information for entering the German market. The authors explain the conditions in which non-German investment products come within the scope of the German Investment Act (regulated investment funds). This book assists the readers in distinguishing between the strict boundaries of private placements and the wider rules of public distribution. Readers are provided with a legal overview in relation to the private placement of regulated investment funds, including hedge funds. This book also deals with the notification of UCITS ('Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities' which comply with the UCITS Directive 85/611/EEC) with the Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht (BaFin) for public distribution in Germany, and sets out an investment company's regulatory reporting and information duties to German unitholders and the BaFin subsequent to a notification for public distribution. The authors explain distribution and marketing rules which apply to foreign regulated investment funds in Germany. They outline the licence requirements for foreign distributors. Consumer-related issues, such as rights of revocation, consumer information and prospectus liability are also covered. This handbook sets out the requirements for listing Exchange Traded Funds on a German stock exchange and deals with continuing listing obligations and the inclusion of foreign investment funds in stock exchange trading without the issuer's consent.

Dr. Kathrin Schmidt LL.M. (Cambridge) is a German attorney-at-law (Rechtsanwältin). She has worked for eight years with two leading German and international law firms in Frankfurt and London, advising non-German investment funds on matters of German regulatory law. Kathrin Schmidt received a doctor's degree from the Humboldt University of Berlin and a Master of Laws degree from the Cambridge University. She completed her undergraduate legal education at the Universities of Frankfurt, Passau and Lausanne.