Maples Japanese Funds Practice Advise on New Green Fund

Maples and Calder, the Maples Group's law firm, is pleased to announce that its Japanese Funds practice recently advised Citigroup First Investment Management Limited ("CFIM") on the launch of Citigroup Note – Target Setting at Maturity Fund 2203 ("the Fund"). The Fund launched on 31 March 2022 and is authorised for public offering in Japan. 

The Fund enables Japanese investors to (i) gain exposure to a notional rules based proprietary index, which is comprised of a basket of bond futures indices, equity futures indices and credit indices and the allocation of which is determined by an established asset manager as index allocator; and (ii) if units of the Fund are held until and including the applicable maturity date, obtain a target return (the "Target Return") expressed as a percentage of the issue price of units of the Fund. The Target Return is intended to be achieved through investment in certain notes (the "Notes") with the issuer of the Notes investing the net proceeds in the financing or refinancing of eligible green assets. 

A team based in the Group's law firm in Hong Kong acted as Cayman Islands legal counsel to CFIM and was led by Funds & Investment Management Partner, Nick Harrold and assisted by Associate, Costa Valtas.

Commenting on the transaction, Nick said, "We were pleased to once again advise our long-standing client, CFIM, on its latest fund. This fund provides investors with great reassurance of a fixed return with the potential for significant upside, and also has sound green credentials at the heart of its strategy".

"This publicly offered fund enables retail investors to obtain a broad and diversified exposure to global assets, and the ability to participate in the financing of projects that contribute towards climate change and promote sustainable infrastructure", added Costa.

The Maples Group's Japanese Funds practice is recognised as the market leader, advising and providing funds services to the industry's heavyweights, as well as new entrants to the market, on the structuring and establishment of Japanese Funds.  The team has been advising CFIM for over 14 years.