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CMS lawyers can provide future-facing advice for your business across a variety of specialisms and industries, worldwide.

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CMS Funds at a glance:
16 rankings across Europe and the UK in the Legal Directories
First French fund invested in crypto assets
First real estate club-deal through blockchain in Europe
Ground-breaking launch of a real estate fund via a blockchain platform in Germany
First corporate venture capital fund in Poland to commercialise new tech startups
First Italian credit fund specialised in the business of trade receivables
First tokenised fund
First global gaming-focused VC fund
Fastest growing Luxembourg Funds Team

CMS offers expert advice at every stage of the funds lifecycle – from planning and launch through governance, restructuring and exit.

The international funds industry is changing at unprecedented speed. Concerns about the environment, sustainability and governance are changing the way many funds work and invest. Asset tokenisation, blockchain, fintech and artificial intelligence (AI) have huge disruptive potential, as do innovative alternative indirect investment vehicles and alternative asset classes. And, inevitably, the regulatory and tax environment for funds continues to evolve.

Whether you are launching, operating, lending to or investing in a fund or an alternative indirect investment vehicle, you need lawyers who have got your back, and who understand not only your business and your requirements, but also the funds landscape and its markets.

Future facing funds

CMS funds lawyers are embedded in their local markets and have extensive industry connections. We are also well known for our specialist expertise in international fund structuring and cross-border mandates. From our global team of over 130 professionals, we can mobilise the right people quickly to create the best team for every mandate.

Our experts are based in jurisdictions including Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Chile, Colombia, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Spain, South Africa, Switzerland, the UK, Ukraine, as well as Luxembourg, the capital of Europe’s investment funds industry. Our lawyers also provide US regulatory support.

Every stage of the funds cycle demands a tailored strategy and structure. CMS offers expert advice at every stage of the funds lifecycle – from planning and launch through governance, restructuring and exit. Different types of funds and asset classes also require distinct advice. We advise on all types of funds (both regulated and unregulated) and indirect structures, across the asset classes from private equity, real estate, infrastructure, hedge, venture capital, debt and exchange traded funds.

Our core funds team can leverage expert resources across CMS to ensure you have the expert advice you need, whatever your requirements, in areas from finance through regulation and taxation to technology. Our sector focus means we can offer you seamless support from market leading specialists in, for example, energy and clean energy, life sciences & healthcare, hotels & leisure, real estate, and financial institutions. And if you are involved in a dispute or potential dispute, or simply wish to mitigate your dispute risk, we have a world class team of dispute resolution lawyers who will help you achieve the most commercial outcome possible.

We are deeply immersed in the funds industry and play a leading role in conversations shaping the tax and regulatory developments that affect your business, as well as complex technical developments such as the role of tokenisation and AI in the future of fund management. 

CMS partners are member of numerous industry organisations’ committees/working groups, enabling CMS to be at the forefront of policy discussions. These include ALFI and LPEA (Luxembourg), IPF, AREF, INREV, BCO, BPF, LPeC, BVCA, EPRA, FMLC, TISA, IE, Invest Europe, BVK (Germany) ALFI and Itinerari Previdenziali (Italy).

Welcome to the CMS Funds Group

Highlighted experience

  • Supporting client products

    PATRIZIA

    On the establishment of a last mile urban logistics co-investment fund, seeded by PATRIZIA’s EUR 1bn TransEuropean VII fund (‘TEP VII’) and anchored by a large middle eastern sovereign investor.

  • Supporting client products

    Tristan Capital Partners

    On further fundraisings of the flagship long-life core plus PanEuropean fund, CCP 5, with additional commitments of EUR 450m raised from a global mix of US and European institutional taking total fund commitments in excess of EUR 2.6bn.

  • Fund creation

    Lendlease Europe

    On the establishment of a UK and Italian EUR 2.5bn investment fund platform for the mixed-used development and urban regeneration project in Milan, Italy.

  • Fund creation

    Play Ventures

    On the establishment and closing of Play Venture Fund, a web3 and blockchain fund focusing on the gaming industry, and one of the largest digital asset funds to be launched in Singapore.

  • Funds across borders

    Aviva

    On the launch of Aviva Investors’ GBP 425m flagship climate transition fund investing into climate transition focused real estate, infrastructure and forestry assets in the UK and Europe, through a range of specialist Luxembourg funds.

  • Funds across borders

    QuadReal

    Property Group On the establishment of an urban logistics platform as a Luxembourg SCSp and subsequently converting into a EUR 1bn Luxembourg regulated SIF fund, to invest in key UK, French and German cities.

  • ESG Funds

    Mirova

    On the establishment of a EUR 300m pan-European private equity fund, the Mirova Environment Acceleration Capital fund, targeting private and institutional investors, which aims to invest in technologies contributing to the environmental transition.

  • ESG Funds

    DTZ Investors

    On the second close and third investment for GBP 1bn COLIV, the world’s first fund to buy and build co-living accommodation in London, which CMS previously structured.

Case studies

CMS Luxembourg advised Blochome, a real estate company, on the tokenisation of the ownership of a residential property, by the issuance of its shares represented by tokens that are transferable through blockchain.

The structure comprises a Luxembourg securitisation vehicle which indirectly owns a building currently under construction in the city of Luxembourg. The tokens enable their holder to own, indirectly, a share of the building. The tokens may be bought by professional and retail investors with the aim of covering the EUR 8m cost of financing of the building. 

CMS Luxembourg worked with all parts of the value chain, including the tokeniser, the corporate service providers, the marketing firms, as well as the Luxembourg regulator (the CSSF).

CMS UK is advising Aviva Investors on the establishment and the launch of a GBP 425m flagship climate transition fund.

The structure comprises a unique UK regulated fund investing into climate transition focused real estate, infrastructure and forestry assets in the UK and Europe, through a range of specialist Luxembourg funds. The new funds are the flagship component of Aviva Investors’ climate transition ambitions, with an aim for the UK fund to be net zero by 2040. 

The cross-border nature has brought a range of complexities requiring specialist technical expertise. Climate change issues were also of paramount importance. The combination of CMS’s international practice and expertise in the ESG space enabled a successful conclusion.

In 2021, CMS Singapore co-authored a MAS-sponsored and trail-blazing white paper exploring the blockchain native tokenisation of a Singapore variable capital (VCC) fund. 

The product of 12 months of work between subject matter experts at CMS Singapore, State Street, UBS, PwC, Tezos, STACS and digital asset platform InvestaX, the study represents the most detailed analysis and most extensive recommendations relating to the required legal, technical and regulatory infrastructure ever published for the Singapore market. 

Asia Pacific is seen as a key market through which institutional fund and asset managers can target the next generation of investors through fund tokenisations and other digital asset initiatives. 

CMS Singapore has been at the cutting edge of these projects in Singapore – both in the tokenisation of funds and recommendations to Government for structural changes to facilitate ‘blockchain native’ fund tokenisations in Singapore.

Awards & Recognitions
01
  • Award
    Tier 1 for Real Estate Investments Funds (UK), Retail Funds (UK), Investment Funds (Scotland & Poland)
    Legal 500
  • Award
    Affiliate of the Year Award 2019
    AREF (Association of Real Estate Funds)
  • Quote
    Prominent group within the investment funds community that is behind a multitude of headline fundraisings and successful closings.
    Chambers & Partners

Events

  • Scenic of panorama view of sunrise skyline and cityscape with light tail on road into metropolis, Bangkok, Thailand
    International
    24 Apr 2025

    Cross-Border Financial Services 2025 webinar series

Local market knowledge. Global outlook

We provide future-facing legal advice to help your organisation thrive. Combining local market knowledge and a global perspective, and with lawyers in locations worldwide, your organisation benefits from the expertise it needs, even across borders.

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