A special purpose entity (SPE; or, especially in Europe, special purpose vehicle/SPV, in

Ireland – FVC financial vehicle corporation) is a legal entity (usually a limited company of some
type or, sometimes, a limited partnership) created to fulfill narrow, specific or temporary
objectives. SPEs are typically used by companies to isolate the firm from financial risk. A
company will transfer assets to the SPE for management or use the SPE to finance a large project
thereby achieving a narrow set of goals without putting the entire firm at risk. SPEs are also
commonly used in complex financings to separate different layers of equity infusion. In addition,
they are commonly used to own a single asset and associated permits and contract rights (such as
an apartment building or a power plant), to allow for easier transfer of that asset. Moreover, they
are an integral part of public private partnerships common throughout Europe which rely on a
project finance type structure.[1]

A special purpose entity may be owned by one or more other entities and certain jurisdictions
may require ownership by certain parties in specific percentages. Often it is important that the
SPE not be owned by the entity on whose behalf the SPE is being set up (the sponsor). For
example, in the context of a loan securitization, if the SPE securitisation vehicle were owned or
controlled by the bank whose loans were to be secured, the SPE would be consolidated with the
rest of the bank's group for regulatory, accounting, and bankruptcy purposes, which would defeat
the point of the securitisation. Therefore many SPEs are set up as 'orphan' companies with their
shares settled on charitable trust and with professional directors provided by an administration
company to ensure that there is no connection with the sponsor.

Contents
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 1 Uses
 2 Establishment of a SPE
 3 Abuses
 4 Accounting guidance
 5 See also
 6 References
 7 Notes
 8 External links

[edit] Uses
Some of the reasons for creating special purpose entities are:

 Securitization: SPEs are commonly used to securitise loans (or other receivables). For
example, a bank may wish to issue a mortgage-backed security whose payments come
from a pool of loans. However, to ensure that the holders of the mortgage-back securities
have the first priority right to receive payments on the loans, these loans need to be
 legally separated from the other obligations of the bank. This is done by creating an SPE,
and then transferring the loans from the bank to the SPE.
 Risk sharing: Corporates may use SPEs to legally isolate a high risk project/asset from
the parent company and to allow other investors to take a share of the risk.
 Finance: Multi-tiered SPEs allow multiple tiers of investment and debt.
 Asset transfer: Many permits required to operate certain assets (such as power plants) are
either non-transferable or difficult to transfer. By having an SPE own the asset and all the
permits, the SPE can be sold as a self-contained package, rather than attempting to assign
over numerous permits.
 For competitive reasons: For example, when Intel and Hewlett-Packard started
developing IA-64 (Itanium) processor architecture, they created a special purpose entity
which owned the intellectual technology behind the processor. This was done to prevent
competitors like AMD accessing the technology through pre-existing licensing deals.
[citation needed]

 Financial engineering: SPEs are often used in financial engineering schemes which have,
as their main goal, the avoidance of tax or the manipulation of financial statements. The
Enron case is possibly the most famous example of a company using SPEs to achieve the
latter goal.
 Regulatory reasons: A special purpose entity can sometimes be set up within an orphan
structure to circumvent regulatory restrictions, such as regulations relating to nationality
of ownership of specific assets.
 Property investing: Some countries have different tax rates for capital gains and gains
from property sales. For tax reasons, letting each property be owned by a separate
company can be a good thing. These companies can then be sold and bought instead of
the actual properties, effectively converting property sale gains into capital gains for tax
purposes.

[edit] Establishment of a SPE

Like a company, an SPE must have promoter(s) or sponsor(s). Usually, a sponsoring corporation
hives off assets or activities from the rest of the company into an SPE. This isolation of assets is
important for providing comfort to investors. The assets or activities are distanced from the
parent company, hence the performance of the new entity will not be affected by the ups and
downs of the originating entity. The SPE will be subject to fewer risks and thus provide greater
comfort to the lenders. What is important here is the distance between the sponsoring company
and the SPE. In the absence of adequate distance between the sponsor and the new entity, the
latter will not be an SPE but only a subsidiary company.

A good SPE should be able to stand on its feet, independent of the sponsoring company.
Unfortunately, this does not always happen in practice. One of the reasons for the collapse of the
Enron SPE was that it became a vehicle for furthering the ends of the parent company in
violation of the prudential norms of corporate financing and accounting.

[edit] Abuses
Special purpose entities were one of the main tools used by executives at Enron, in order to hide
losses and fabricate earnings, resulting in the Enron scandal of 2001. They were also used to hide
losses and overstate earnings by executives at Tower Financial, which declared bankruptcy in
1994. Several executives of the company were found guilty of securities fraud, served prison
sentences, and paid fines.

[edit] Accounting guidance

Under US GAAP, a number of accounting standards apply to SPEs, most notably FIN46R that
sets out the consolidation treatment of these entities. There are a number of other standards that
apply to different transactions with SPEs.

Under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), the relevant standard is IAS 27 in
connection with the interpretation of SIC12 (Consolidation—Special Purpose Entities). The
IASB published an exposure draft (ED 10) to merge both regulations.

[edit] See also