'fip' Tag
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More on the PEA-PME and tax optimization game
September 10, 2013Last week’s post on finance minister Pierre Moscovici’s newly announced measure of a PEA for SMEs in France prompted some feedback that caught me off guard. Beyond the customary reactions wavering between praise and consternation (usually tilting toward the latter), I found myself in the unusual position of being solicited for tax planning advice. “Should […]
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State of the [French VC] Union: Bleak
February 5, 2013Last summer I wrote a piece about how France’s Retail VC funds were facing bleak prospects (Retail VCs: Pivot or Perish). With the jury now in from 2012’s fundraising cycle for these vehicles, it unfortunately appears that my August piece proved ominously prescient. By way of refresher, Retail VCs are the venture capital firms whose […]
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What Gallois’ report means for tech startups
November 13, 2012Last week the French government’s Commissaire général à l’investissement, Louis Gallois, released his eagerly anticipated diagnosis on France’s competitiveness to the Prime Minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault. Encompassing six major themes and 22 specific proposals, the Pacte pour la Compétitivité de L’industrie Française is both sweeping in its analysis and prescriptive in recommending solutions. Gallois begins by […]
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Pour une France Compétitive
September 25, 2012Over the weekend I had the pleasure of reading France Digitale’s whitepaper “Pour une France compétitive et créatrice d’emplois.” I say pleasure, because I really did enjoy reading the organization’s pragmatic proposal of four concrete measures to include in the upcoming Loi des Finances 2013. For those who are not familiar, France Digitale is a […]
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Okay President Hollande, you’ve got our attention !
September 11, 2012{The following is merely a tongue-in-cheek attempt at an imaginary letter I could write to President François Hollande. Its opinions are purely personal and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer or my industry.} Dear Mr. President, First off, thank you for opening my mail. If you’re reading this letter, you would be the […]
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Retail VCs: pivot or perish ?
August 28, 2012It’s been a hot, lazy summer in most of France (far superior to last year, weather-wise, thank goodness). But in at least one sector of France people struggled to completely relax: the private equity / venture capital firms whose principal sources of funds are tax-incentivized “retail” investors. Such retail fund vehicles are a fairly uniquely […]
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Taxing times in French asset management
February 20, 2012Capital Finance (part the Les Echos Groupe) features an article today on the discombobulations affecting the country’s tax-incentivized fund structures: FCPIs and FIPs. I’ve written in the past on the perverse effects that these taxpayer-funded structures can have on the venture capital sector. And for full disclosure, a significant percentage of Truffle’s funds under management […]