Profile: George Pinkham

Private funds

Biography: Private funds

George Pinkham is the managing partner of SJ Berwin's Paris office and member of the firm's European strategy committee. He is also a member of a team of pre-eminent private equity lawyers across Europe, and he leads the fund creation group in Paris. The office is one of the leading firms in France for the structuring of funds with four partners, George Pinkham, Benjamin Aller, Nathalie Duguay and Arnaud David.

George specialises in the creation of private funds both in France (FCPRs and SCRs) and abroad (US and UK partnerships, Luxembourg funds and offshore structures). George also has significant experience in private equity transactions, particularly LBO and LMBO acquisitions by private equity funds. He also advises investment funds and institutional investors on their portfolio investments and divestments (secondaries). The private funds group works for some of the largest private equity houses, both in France and in the UK.

George is a member of the tax and legal committee of the EVCA (European Venture Capital Association) and the legal committee of the AFIC (Association Française des Investisseurs en Capital) and participates regularly in the drafting of French legislative and regulatory recommendations concerning private equity.

A well-known French private equity magazine recently published a survey of law firms that advise private equity houses. The SJ Berwin funds creation group in Paris was first in France with 16 funds created, representing total investor commitments exceeding €6 billion. The magazine cited the following funds: L Capital, Alpha, Chequers, MBO Capital, Atria Sagard, Argos Soditic, Euromezzanine, Access Capital Partners, SGAM Private Value Fund, Quartilium Mezzanine (the Groupama insurance group) and the Natixis/EIF joint venture fund called Dahlia. The magazine says that these funds represent more than 50 per cent of the French market for 2006.