Aureos Capital relocates staff to Singapore

The opening of the new head office may be a sign that the UK no longer offers a favourable environment for private equity firms who are likely balking at the threat of proposed EU regulation, high costs and tax hikes.

The firm’s ten-man London team will be halved, with five senior executives migrating to the new Asia office.

Aureos's media relations representative was not available for comment.

Sivendran Vettivetpillai, chief executive of Aureos Advisers, which provides advice to the group’s funds, told Bloomberg, “With all the regulations and tariffs that are coming in the UK, it certainly makes sense economically to move senior people and thin down the London operations simply because the cost factor is getting out of hand.”

The UK’s private equity industry has voiced fears over the threat of increased taxes and regulation, which may jeopardise London’s standing as a hub for the asset class.

The British Venture Capital Association earlier this week called for a freeze on capital gains tax in its budget submission to the UK Treasury, saying that increases could push the UK to the bottom of international competitiveness league tables.

Guy Hands, the head of private equity firm Terra Firma, left the UK last year to evade an increased income tax of 50 per cent for those earning £150,000 (€170,000) or more.

Aureos Capital is currently raising a $250m (€283.4m) fund to invest in South-East Asia. The fund will target SMEs in Asian frontier private equity markets including the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.

If the vehicle reaches its fundraising target it will be nearly three times the size of the Aureos’s previous South-East Asia fund, which raised $91m in 2004.

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