Blackstone’s Murphy takes helm at Invest Europe

Dr Gerry Murphy, senior managing director and chairman of Blackstone Europe, has been named the new chair of industry association Invest Europe.

Murphy takes over the role from Quadriga Capital founding partner Max Römer. Invest Europe’s membership is divided across four platforms – venture capital, mid-market, large buy-out, and limited partners – and the chairmanship rotates between each platform.

Murphy told pfm key themes for the industry association – continuing to work with regulators on the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive, supporting the Capital Markets Union, and engaging with the debate around BEPS – will remain a priority during his tenure.

“A single market for capital is a pretty important high-level objective,” Murphy said.

On AIFMD, Invest Europe will continue to work to resolve issues around passporting for third countries, as well as preparing for AIFMD II.

“We want to ensure the freedoms that we have in AIFMD I for our kind of capital at least don’t get eroded,” Murphy said. “Hopefully we can address some of the technical issues that have emerged.”

Murphy said Invest Europe must be “very vigilant around the tax debate so we don’t have unintended consequences”.

Invest Europe will work closely with regulators on the OECD’s Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project to ensure regulators understand the way the private equity industry works and why, including the way the industry uses leverage and incorporates its funds to avoid double taxation for investors.

BEPs aims to significantly decrease cases of base erosion, where the amount of money that can be taxed in a country is reduced, and profit shifting, where the business activity is undertaken in one country but the profits are allocated to a country with a lower tax rate.

“We don’t want our investors to be disadvantaged as collateral damage in resolving other issues,” Murphy said.

Murphy, who spent 25 years in various roles at public companies, including CEO, director, and committee chairman, before joining Blackstone in 2008, will also focus on transparency and reporting during his tenure.

“I’m very keen to support Invest Europe’s initiatives in that regard,” Murphy said.

“We have a very effective campaign within Invest Europe to improve professional standards, to improve transparency, which is very much the kind of thing I’d like to see. I want to see how I can advance that agenda, both inside of the organization and with other stakeholders.”