Insights

On 3 July 2020, the Cypriot Parliament passed and brought in force new legislation entitled the Mini Alternative Investment Fund Managers Law (L. 81(I)/2020) (Mini-AIFM Law) creating a regime for the regulation and licensing of sub-threshold alternative investment fund managers based in the jurisdiction (Sub-threshold AIFMs or Mini-AIFMs). Prior to the enactment, Sub-threshold AIFMs were not independently subject to licensing in the Republic of Cyprus (Cyprus).

In an article published in the Financial Times written by Joe Rennison on 15 June 2020, it was reported that top-rated US companies have issued almost as much debt in 2020 as they did in the whole year of 2019. In addition to syndicated and club lending and private equity financing, there has been a huge increase in bond issuances as companies look to the capital markets to finance or refinance their debt. In the article by Rennison, Rich Zogheb, head of debt capital markets at CITI stated that: “it has been remarkable the amount of volume that has come to the market … we keep waiting for investor demand to wane and for us to have a problem but we haven’t seen it.”

On 30 July 2020 the Privy Council handed down their decision in Ciban Management Corporation v Citco (BVI) Ltd [2020] UKPC 21, upholding the decision of the British Virgin Islands Commercial Court and the Eastern Caribbean Court of Appeal, and developing our understanding of certain key aspects of company law, especially the Duomatic principle and section 175 of the BVI Business Companies Act 2004.

As part of the COVID-19 stimulus package promised by the Government of the Virgin Islands, the Stamp Duty Act, Cap 212 of the Laws of the Virgin Islands, (the Stamp Act) was amended by the Stamp Duty (Amendment) Act, 2020, (the Amendment). The Amendment was passed on 19 June 2020, assented to by the Governor on 23 July 2020 and gazetted on 28 July 2020.

In our eighth episode, Transactional Partner Rachel Graham and Senior Associate within Harneys’ Private Wealth team, Matthew Howson discuss, the do’s and don’ts of succession planning where there is a BVI company.

In the sixth episode of our Funds Download podcast series, our host and the global head of Funds and Regulatory, Philip Graham, is joined by head of Funds and Regulatory, Asia, Maggie Kwok, to share insights from the region.