Investment Management Partner Discusses Positive Effect of No-Action Relief on PE Firms in Compliance Intelligence

Investment management partner Win Quayle is quoted in a Feb. 10 Compliance Intelligence article titled “Broker Relief Called a Boon To PE Firms.” Mr. Quayle discusses the effect of the SEC’s recent no-action relief letter on private equity firms. The no-action relief will allow M&A brokers to receive transaction-based commissions without registering with the SEC or the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority as a broker/dealer as they had to before. Mr. Quayle notes that as a result of this letter, PE firms can pay referral fees to M&A Brokers which bring deals to them. He also notes that while the SEC doesn’t explicitly address the practice of private equity sponsors charging deal fees in connection with portfolio company acquisitions, “the implication of the letter is that B/D protections are not needed if it’s a controlled transaction between sophisticated parties.”