It is our pleasure today to submit the first fully revised draft of the EVCA Handbook of Professional Standards for member consultation. For the next two months, we invite members to review it and contact us with any feedback that they may have.

Robust and comprehensive professional standards are key to mapping the future of the European private equity and venture capital industry. More than ever, we need to ensure that we not only anticipate corporate governance standards but also actively participate in shaping and implementing them. The regular review and update of our professional standards is one crucial way to do so, to ensure our standards reflect prevailing best practices in the corporate and investment worlds and offer the best possible guidance on these.

With this in mind, the EVCA Professional Standards Working Group has been busy compiling a new, up-to-date and practical EVCA Handbook, making it a most useful and valuable tool for you. Last summer, we presented members with a preliminary version of the EVCA Handbook, combining the Code of Conduct, the Governing Principles and the Corporate Governance Guidelines together for the first time into one condensed document.

In the next phase of the project, the Working Group focused on revising and updating the content of the EVCA Handbook, to ensure utmost accuracy and compliance with the current industry requirements. New sections have been added, including on GP communication and transparency, LP conflicts of interest, LP Advisory Committee, keyman provisions and secondary transactions.

After consultation, we will seek approval of the final EVCA Handbook by EVCA's Board of Directors. The EVCA Handbook will become the only industry wide set of standards governing the relationship between GPs, LPs and portfolio companies to be authored by both limited and general partners and endorsed by all.

Please note that the final version of the EVCA Handbook will also conveniently include the International Private Equity and Venture Capital (IPEV) Valuation Guidelines (already integrated in today’s version) as well as the new Reporting Guidelines. First developed by EVCA, the latter have now been transferred to the IPEV Valuation Board, of which EVCA is a founding member, for further development in an international context. They will shortly be published for consultation before becoming an integral part of the EVCA Handbook.

We look forward to garnering member feedback on the EVCA Handbook. Members can send their comments to erika.blanckaert@evca.eu by 30th March, 2012.

Finally, we would like to extend our thanks to the members of the EVCA Professional Standards Working Group for their outstanding efforts on behalf of all of us.