Dodd-Frank created a new legal definition for a “private fund” as pooled investment vehicles that are excluded from the definition of “investment company” under the Investment Company Act of 1940 by section 3(c)(1) or 3(c)(7) of that Act.
Under 3(c)(1), the main limitations are that you have one hundred or fewer holders of beneficial interest in the fund and that you do not propose to sell them in a public offering. Under 3(c)(7) you can go beyond the 100 owners, but they need to be “qualified purchasers.” That means they need to have a bigger wallet.
Real estate funds managers have used these standards because they are bright-line tests. It also skirts around the issue of whether the fund is investing in “securities” and “what is a security”. The SEC has taken a broad view on what could considered a security.
Real estate fund managers have also looked at 3(c)5 and wondered if they can rely it as an exclusion under the Investment Company Act:
(5) Any person who is not engaged in the business of issuing redeemable securities, face-amount certificates of the installment type or periodic payment plan certificates, and who
is primarily engaged in one or more of the following businesses:
… (C) purchasing or otherwise acquiring mortgages and other liens on and interests in real estate.
The SEC issued a new no-action letter to Redwood Trust that takes a deep look at some features of this exclusion. Although the credit risk transfer certificates at issue in the letter are not widely applicable to real estate fund managers, the discussion around the exclusion is useful:
We have taken the position that the exclusion in Section 3(c)(5)(C) may be available to an issuer if: at least 55% of its assets consist of “mortgages and other liens on and interests in real estate” (called “qualifying interests”) and the remaining 45% of its assets consist primarily of “real estate-type interests;” at least 80% of its total assets consist of qualifying interests and real estate-type interests; and no more than 20% of its total assets consist of assets that have no relationship to real estate (these factors together, the “Asset Composition Test”).[3]
We generally have taken the position that qualifying interests are assets that represent an actual interest in real estate or are loans or liens fully secured by real estate [4]
We generally also have taken the position that an asset is not a qualifying interest for purposes of Section 3(c)(5)(C) if it is an interest in the nature of a security in another issuer engaged in the real estate business.[5]
We have, however, indicated that certain mortgage-related instruments that may not be treated as qualifying interests may be treated as real estate-type interests.[6]
Sources:
- Redwood Trust No Action Letter (October 2017)
- Are you an Investment Company?
- Private Fund Exemptions under the Investment Company Act
- Investment Company Act of 1940 (.pdf)
- Salomon Brothers, Inc., SEC Staff No-Action Letter (June 17, 1985)
- Citytrust, SEC Staff No-Action Letter (Dec. 19, 1990)
- Greenwich Capital Acceptance Inc., SEC Staff No-Action Letter (Aug. 8, 1991)
