SEBI has issued certain clarifications to its circular dated 5 February 2020 on ‘Disclosure Standards for AIFs’ (refer KM Legal update below), as under:

• The audit of compliance with terms of the Private Placement Memorandum (PPM) shall be conducted at the end of each Financial Year and the findings of the audit, along with corrective steps, if any, shall be communicated to the Trustee or Board or Designated Partners of the AIF, Board of the Manager and SEBI, within 6 months from the end of the Financial Year.
• The audit compliance will not apply to AIFs which have not raised any funds from their investors. However, such AIFs are required to submit a Certificate from a Chartered Accountant to the effect that no funds have been raised, within 6 months from the end of the Financial Year.
• For the Financial Year 2019-20, the abovementioned requirements must be fulfilled on or before 31 December, 2020.
• An Association of AIFs which represents at least 33% (earlier 51%) of the number of AIFs in terms of membership, may notify one or more Benchmarking Agencies with whom each AIF shall enter into an agreement for carrying out the benchmarking process. The timeline for making available the first industry benchmark and the AIF level performance versus Benchmark Reports has been extended till 1 October 2020.

To refer to the SEBI circular dated 12 June 2020, click here.