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By Chris Humphries, Managing Director, Stuarts Walker Hersant, Attorneys-at-Law – The Cayman Islands continues to be the leading offshore jurisdiction for mutual funds and hedge funds. Its position as the premier jurisdiction is as a result of innovative legislation and the absence of taxation together with the presence of sophisticated and professional service providers and a favourable regulatory environment.
The Cayman Islands offers:
• A straightforward fund registration procedure.
• A flexible investment fund regime within a clear and effective regulatory environment.
• Experienced legal, administrative and accounting service providers.
• No requirement to have Cayman Islands based directors or
In 2011, ahead of the introduction of the AIFMD in Europe, an article entitled “A foot in both camps”, was written by Derek Delaney, Managing Director of DMS Offshore Investment Services (Europe) Limited. In it, Delaney (pictured) wrote: “There is an enduring perception that the established European domiciles such as Ireland and Luxembourg are in direct competition with the leading offshore domiciles such as Cayman. This perception has transcended reality to the extent that leading participants in both camps deem it necessary to fight their corner.”
With over 225 staff, DMS is the world’s largest provider of fund governance services
UBS Fund Services has had one of its strongest years in terms of winning new clients according to Monette Windsor (pictured), who heads up the Cayman Islands business.
“We’ve invested heavily in our business development team this year and we’ve had to beef up our client onboarding team. We have 165 staff now; we’re the largest administrator on the island,” says Windsor.
Not only has the firm seen client numbers rise, it has also seen a good number of existing managers launch new products. Interestingly, Windsor notes that many of them are not commingled funds but rather products for single
Derek Adler (pictured) ACSI is a director and founder member of International Financial Administration Group (‘Ifina’), which has now been around for 17 years providing fund administration services to small and emerging fund managers as well as large institutional clients. Over the last three years, Ifina has been successfully running a turnkey fund solution in Cayman for managers keen to avoid the cost and time to market to launch a standalone fund.
The umbrella fund structure, known as the Primary Development Fund, provides a segregated sub-fund arrangement and in Adler’s words, acts as a useful “stepping stone” for managers to
After signing Model 1 inter-governmental agreements (IGA) with both the US and the UK in November 2013, in July 2014 the Cayman Islands government passed the necessary regulations to provide legal obligations with respect to US and UK FATCA as a matter of Cayman Islands law. Also in July 2014, the Cayman Islands Tax Information Reporting Authority (‘TIA’) issued the first official version of the Cayman Islands FATCA guidance notes.
The next expected development comes early next year with the opening of an information exchange portal – which foreign financial institutions (FFIs) will use to file their FATCA reports to
By Giorgio Subiotto (pictured) & Shameer Jasani, Ogier – We have witnessed a clear evolution in how the composition of boards of directors on Cayman investment funds has been structured.
The concept of using independent directors is not new. Many US managers have used them on their boards of the feeder fund, in large part driven by US tax rules to do with investment fees and deferral rules. It was a pure tax planning device, where little thought was given to the selection of the directors so long as they weren’t related to the Investment Manager.
But this check the box approach,
By Nicholas Butcher, Maples and Calder – Cayman Islands exempted limited partnerships (“ELPs”) are currently riding the crest of a wave. Consistently a popular form of investment vehicle for hedge and especially private equity funds, 2013 saw a record 2,368 ELPs formed and registered in the Cayman Islands, and with the tally of new registrations in the calendar year to November 2014 already standing at 2,580, that record is set to be eclipsed this year.
In degree this popularity is explained by strong demand for Cayman Islands vehicles for use in offshore transactions as a result of a combination of Cayman’s
On 6 December 2013, after a period of consultation with industry practitioners, the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA) – the Islands’ financial regulator – released its Statement of Guidance for Regulated Mutual Funds (‘SoG-MF’). In essence, the SoG-MF codifies and sets guidance on the minimum corporate governance standards required by operators of regulated mutual funds (directors, general partners) and gives the operators a clear understanding of their primary duties.
CIMA expects the oversight, direction and management of a regulated mutual fund to be conducted in a fit and proper manner in accordance with the Mutual Funds Law. The Statement
Private equity investor Advent International is to acquire majority ownership of Brazilian technology products provider Allied SA from One Equity Partners (OEP) and other minority shareholders.
The Radomysler family, which founded the company, will retain a significant minority stake and continue to lead Allied. The transaction, subject to regulatory approval and certain closing conditions, is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2015. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
Founded in 2001, Allied provides services and supply chain management solutions to more than 3,700 customers, including telecommunications carriers, OEMs, retailers and corporate customers (B2B channel).
Shepherd and Wedderburn has advised the senior creditors on the Scottish aspects of one of the largest and most complex road projects involving bond financing in the UK – The Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route / Balmedie to Tipperty (AWPR / B-T) project.
Worth GBP745 million, the project is being delivered in partnership by Transport Scotland, Aberdeen City Council and Aberdeenshire Council. Successful financial close with project funders, The Aberdeen Roads Limited Consortium (Balfour Beatty, Carillion and Galliford Try), was achieved on Friday, 12 December, 2014.
The contract covers the design, build, finance and operation (DBFO) for the A90 AWPR
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