Falcon Funds SICAV plc (‘Falcon’ or ‘the Scheme’) is a UCITS collective investment scheme registered and licenced in Malta. The Company was registered on the 22 November 2013 and licenced on the 27 December 2013 to carry on the activities of a publicly available umbrella collective investment scheme pursuant to section 6 of the investment services act, 1994 in respect of three sub-funds (‘the sub-funds’) – [i] Falcon Aggressive Fund; [ii] Falcon Cautious Fund; and [iii] Falcon Balanced Fund.
Falcon had entered into an investment management agreement with Temple Asset Management Ltd (‘Temple’) in order for the latter to act as its investment manager. Temple is licenced to provide management for collective investment schemes and qualifies as a UCITS Management Company and as a full Alternative Investment Fund Manager. The revised licence was granted to Temple on the 5 December 2014.
The MFSA has been investigating the conduct of Falcon’s business since December 2015 following reports received by the Authority.
The Swedish Pensions Agency (‘SPA’), a Swedish government agency, is currently the sole investor in the sub-funds. The SPA is in charge of the national retirement pension in Sweden both with respect to individuals who are still working and earning their pension and those who are already retired.
On the 16 June 2016 the SPA had filed a redemption request for all its units in the Falcon sub-funds. This request was not executed since Falcon had suspended the redemptions and subscriptions in the sub-fund on the 15 June 2016. Falcon had also filed proceedings in the Swedish courts inter alia contesting the validity of the redemption requests.
Following careful consideration of the facts available to the Authority and the arguments brought forward by both Falcon and the SPA, the MFSA issued two directives to Falcon on the 9 and 22 September 2016 (Refer to: http://www.mfsa.com.mt/pages/viewcontent.aspx?id=600).
The MFSA’s investigation into the activity of Falcon and Temple is currently ongoing and is expected to be concluded shortly.
