The funds department of Raveh Haber & Co is the leading and most active department in the Israeli funds market. The department started operating in 2006, at the beginning as part of a large law firm, and later as a boutique office. The department is consistently ranked by leading international guides at the top of the ranking lists, and advocates Gil Raveh and Miriam Haber are consistently chosen as leading individuals in this field. Raveh Haber and Co. is the only Israeli office which is mentioned as a leading firm in the private equity sector of PREQIN, the major ranking guide in the private equity field.

The department’s activities include, inter alia, founding and planning of funds, strategic representation of the fund’s management teams prior to and during the fund’s lifetime, assisting the funding in investment transactions in Israel and abroad and planning co-investments with investors which are not members of the funds, or with investors of the fund who wish to invest alongside the fund.

The department represents each fund from the business strategic planning stage until the final closing stage, providing complete legal solutions in the areas of regulation, tax, securities, and other disciplines which are required at the fund formation stage. Afterwards, the department represents the fund regularly through its entire term, while forming specific investment structures which suits the fund and its investors, formulating methods of corporate governance, managing clients’ relations, and providing regulatory and tax advice. The legal services provided to the funds also include the formation of its managing entities, as well as the tax planning involved in such formation, and the planning of transgenerational transfers of the interests to those entities. The department also plans and forms structures for specific investments in Israel and abroad, for various purposes and for investors with different needs (individuals and institutional).

The firm’s team has vast experience in representing funds and managers from different areas, including real estate and debt. Supporting investment funds with varied investment purposes requires deep understanding of the unique way of doing business of each fund, the capital structure of each investment, exit strategy and tax and regulation aspects of each asset. Such understanding enables the firm’s team to adapt the governing documents of each fund to its unique business strategy. The firm represents, inter alia, clients from the following areas:

  • Leading international entities which are active in the investment funds’ market, such as Hamilton Lane. The firm’s members have advised Hamilton Lane since its entry to the Israeli market, both on funds and tax and regulation issues. Hamilton Lane’s activities include, inter alia, investment accounts, advising plans and specializing funds. Hamilton Lane is one of the world’s largest gatekeepers and is the most active player in its field in the Israeli Market.
  • Israeli private equity funds: the firm represents two of Israel’s largest private equity groups: the Tene funds’ group and the Kedma Capital funds’ group.
  • Mezzanine to real estate funds: the firm represents Yesodot group, which is Israel’s largest non-bank financier.
  • Israeli real estate: the firm represents the JTLV II fund, one of Israel’s two largest real estate funds.
  • Infrastructure and Energy: the firm represents Noy Infrastructure and Energy Investment group, one of Israel’s two largest infrastructure and Energy funds. Additionally, the firm represented the Aviram Ruach Group in forming and operating a fund, the first Israeli fund of its kind, for renewable energy investments in Europe, focused on wind power.
  • Venture capital funds of different stages: the firm represents Israel Growth Partners group, one of the largest late stage funds in Israel, and Jal Ventures group, which invests in earlier stages in its portfolio companies’ lives. Additionally, the firm represented Yissum, the development company of the Hebrew University, in the formation of an investment fund formed in order to sponsor, finance and commercialize the research and development inventions of researchers of the Hebrew University in the fields of nanotechnology and advanced materials.
  • Special circumstances and specialized funds: the firm represents the Vpartners funds of the Viola group, which form funds of funds, the Green Lantern fund, which specializes in the food industry and Elah Impact Fund, the sole impact fund in Israel.

The team members of the funds’ department have vast experience and expertise, which was accumulated during many years of activity in Israel and the United States. The experience of the team members contributes to a wide vision of the legal and business fields, together with focused understanding of each investment vehicle and its purposes.

The legal advice provided by the funds department includes, inter alia, access to the complementary specializations of the firm – tax and regulation. The synergy between the departments leads to the creation of creative and complex solutions, while providing legal services of the highest level.

“Widely considered by its peers to be a market leader in investment fund formation, Raveh Haber & Co. is consistently taking lead roles in the formation and management of novel private equity and real estate funds, and SPVs. As a boutique firm focusing on investment management, the team provides highly specialised advice to domestic and international funds and investment managers, as well as institutional and non-institutional investors. The firm is jointly led by Gil Raveh and Miriam Haber, both of whom were educated in the US and have experiencing practicing at some of the most prestigious law firms in New York. Yuval Arad is also recommended in the private equity group. The team has handled recent formation matters for clients including Noy Infrastructure and Energy Fund and Electra America.”

Legal 500, 2020