Hi @laurachan12 as far as I know there is no position from SEF regarding this. But as long as you comply with the law they should accept it.
Cheers,
Alex
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I had asked Duarte specifically about this clause (Article 5, point 5 in the MR) by email several weeks ago and received an answer that the it was a standard clause in almost all fundsā MR, but that the fees and costs are fund costs, so investors will not be requested and are not obliged to make additional contributions. He also said something I didnāt fully understand about how that clause is there in case it was a very small fund and hadnāt got enough capital yet, it might need to ask for more capital to cover its expenses. However, if I were to invest the fund, I would certainly ask for more clarification from Duarte and from my lawyer.
The clause does feel out of place given the nature of private equity funds and other parts of the MR not requiring additional contributions. Definitely going to clarify that and any other ambiguous verbage in any of these funds. Hoping to get all the obvious questions listed before I have a lawyer review.
AllāThe legal company I am using is Nuno Sousa Moniz & Associados. They were part of the POF package that gets things done quickly: the banker, lawyer, and apostle were all quickly delivered up. I did not do research on any of them prior to signing up. The banker has been great.
Jeff, as you say, these are small funds just starting out. Mistakes are to be expected. But this is an example of why I would want to purchase shares across multiple funds to spread risk. The risk isnāt just of fraud or a bad investment, there is also a risk of regulatory or other mistakes made by the funds.
Iām not sure how to respond to the revelation that multiple funds might not be accepted by the SEF for a Golden Visa. Is there a real risk that they wonāt accept my purchase of shares across 3 funds???
If there is a risk that this will not be approved, then Iām back to buying property or just giving up altogether. The insanity in my country is starting to abate, and I can get permanent residency in Japan or New Zealand by simply working there for 1 year.
I have to say, this process is a bit of a mess.
I want to add additional thought here. Remember that the Golden Visa funds are brining a bunch of unsophisticated investors with some cash that they have to spend. That is a recipe for bad actors. They are also incentivizing a bunch of inexperienced funds to grab low hanging fruit. That is a recipe for losing all of your money. Just be careful out there!
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Iām sorry if this is a very naive question but I was wondering if a longstanding real estate fund in Portugal could be used for the Golden Visa investment. The fund I am interested in is called ImopoupanƧa. It is from a funds company called Fundiestamo and has been around since 2010 and rated only 2 out of 7 on the risk scale by BPI bank, so it seems super stable compared to other funds in the market. As far as I can tell, it is headquartered in Portugal and investing in Portugal, so it would seem to superficially meet the requirements. I tried to email the fund company last week to ask if it was open for GV investment but have not heard back yet. Unfortunately, all of the information I could find about this fund is in Portuguese, so I was forced to rely on a very dubious combination of Google translate and half-forgotten college Spanish to read the materials. Perhaps someone here who reads Portuguese could advise further? Here are some links about the fund:
https://www.bancobpi.pt/particulares/poupar-investir/fundos-de-investimento/imopoupanca-fia https://fundiestamo.com/
Fundos de investimento imobiliĆ”rio: DĆ£o frutos! - AnĆ”lises Deco - Jornal de NegĆ³cios
I do know of another very longstanding fund (IMGA AƧƵes Portugal) which, according to the people at Millennium Bank, is qualified for GV investment. However, that fund is much higher risk (6 out of 7?) and appears to have been bouncing up and down like a yoyo for the past 25 years or so.
To qualify for GV, the duration period of the fund needs to be, at least 5 years.
It appears that the Fundiestamo fund would not qualify based upon this requirement.
As is discussed elsewhere in this thread, there is some risk for funds that do not explicitly state that 60% fund be invested in Portuguese companies.
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i am using Nuno Sousa Moniz & Associados services. I find them good. All invest carry risk .
Thank you for the kind words, Mr. @petermuennig. We are truly humbled and we look forward to working with you 
I must add that this is a two-way stream and without your cooperation and support, this would not be achieved. 
Nomadgate users - Please do not hesitate to contact us. We are here to support and educate you - regardless if you invest with us or not. As mentioned in my long post, I am on Golden Visa myself and have been through this process. I can empathize with the anxiousness involved here to make this decision.
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Ok, I get it. Yeah, it doesnāt sound great. It seems in conflict with Article 7, but assuming the English translates the same as the Portuguese, itās not. Management can request a capital increase. It canāt however require it.
In my general experience (admittedly limited) itās a fudge clause. Without it, they simply canāt ask for more money even if they do need it. Which of course you hope they donāt, but thatās more a matter of whether you trust them to manage your money in the first place, which is something that cannot be cured through the MR. I donāt like how itās written but that may well be artifact of translation. As for whether itās common or not, Iād have to go read the other MRs, but itās not something that leapt out at me as OMG-terrible when I did read through it before.
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It seems this fund is a real estate fund and not a VC fund. I guess real estate fund is not eligible for GV?
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Is that because it doesnāt have a fixed term? Darn! I think I just really like the word āImopoupanƧaā. It sounds like it should be a type of dessert or something. 
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How is it different from the other funds that invest in real estate, like Blue Crow, Portugal Opportunities, Rock Capital, Iberisās Yield Fund, etc?
Laura,
yes, this is required in the Portuguese law. No way around that AFAIK.
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These other funds that you mention do not invest directly in real estate. They typically invest in SPVs (legal entities) which are set up to own and manage the real estate assets.
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So the investment in those SPVs is considered to be capitalization in a company, even though the SPV is just created to manage that real estate investment?
apparently so, given thatās how all these funds that we know are approved are working.
Thereās an interesting document I got that illustrates the differences between the VC funds and the traditional āREITsā by showing the difference between how Lince and GEF work - same umbrella, same owners, same basic investments, but structured and taxed completely differently. guess theyāre just different audiences.
@jb4422, All - the biggest issue with the Blue Crow fund from what little I have seen is that if you miss the 6 year window to withdraw funds, you are stuck for another 9. 6 years seems a little tight given the process/path to residency & citizenship and normal latencies involved between steps to get there from square 1. 7 years seems safer.
@tier0605 That is not the case with Blue Crow. I asked them this question. You can not leave until that date but once it passes, you can leave as you need to. In other words, it is not a āone and doneā if your visa timeline is not ready for an exit.
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Interesting. Iām learning a lot more about the requirements for these funds from all of you on this forum. Thank you!
I did notice that Iberisās Yield fund does not allow leverage in the fund itself, but allows leverage in the SPVs as a way of protecting the fund investors. That sounds like a good idea. However, the Iberis fund seems to be only relying on GV investors. It has already been open for a year and only has attracted about 1.5 million in capital with one completed investment, which is leased to a co-working company. Blue Crow seems to be much further along and has more Covid-resistant types of investments, but is allowing 70% leverage in the fund itself and is a pretty small company.
Of the funds Iāve researched, I feel most confident with Portugal Gateway: no leverage, very experienced teams, large companies, institutional investors as well as GV, spread of investments. Itās just that a tech fund seems inherently more risky than something like property. They are also still in the early stages of getting capital into the fund.
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