Jenny Wheater (ed.) - Tax-efficient Private Fund Structuring

Christophe Baert is a Paris-based senior associate in the private equity department of Proskauers Paris office and a member of the private investment funds group at Proskauer LLP.

Christophe has over 12 years of experience as a legal adviser to the private equity industry advising private equity fund managers, institutional investors and founders of portfolio companies. Double-skilled on fund formation and private equity transactions, Christophes practice covers a broad range of issues including fund formation and all associated matters (structuring French management companies, fund investments, carried interest, co-investment arrangements, etc.), as well as venture capital, capital growth transactions and secondary transactions.

Christophe has a DJCE and a DEA de droit priv from the University of Poitiers. He is admitted to the bar in France.

Raphal Bra is a partner in the tax department at SJ Berwin LLP in Paris. His expertise is focused on tax matters, in particular on investment fund structures, both French and foreign (FCPR, partnership, SICAR, FIS, SAS) for various assets (private equity, real estate funds, infrastructure funds). In this context, he also assists funds on how to implement investment schemes or incentive plans for their management teams.

He is also involved in the tax structuring of numerous acquisitions of companies, leveraged buyouts, real estate investments, restructurings and refinancings for investment funds and industrial groups. Additionally, Raphal has extensive experience in tax litigation and tax audits.

Raphal began his career at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton (20022007) in New York, and then joined the tax department of SJ Berwin, Paris in May 2007. He became a partner in May 2011.

Raphal is a graduate of the University Paris II Panthon Assas (DESS-DJCE in Business Law, 2000) and of Harvard Law School (LLM and International Tax Program Certificate, 2002). He also holds a degree from the Institut dEtudes Politiques of Paris (Public Affairs, 1997).

Raphal has been a member of the New York Bar and of the Paris Bar since 2003. His native language is French and he is fluent in English.

Michiel Beudeker is a tax adviser and a member of the international tax practice group at Loyens & Loeff in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He advises multinationals, banks and private equity funds on inter alia international financing transactions, corporate restructurings, fund formations, holding and financing structures and transfer pricing. He also focuses on transactions between the Netherlands and Belarus, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Further, Michiel is a member of the corporate restructuring & insolvency team.

Michiel is a member of the International Fiscal Association (IFA) and of the Dutch Association of Tax Advisers (NOB) and he frequently lectures and publishes on various taxation matters. Michiel worked in the London office from 2008 through 2011.