Unravelling
complexity.

This guide highlights the key benefits of using a BVI corporate structure.

The market is flooded with news and events surrounding the topic of Environmental, Social and Governance and its importance to what we do, how we do it, and who we do it with. For many years, Harneys Partner Greg Boyd has advocated the BVI Corporate Advantage.

Introducing this five-part video series which will explore the challenges and opportunities for start-ups and entrepreneurs of companies and funds. In this first video of the series, George Weston, Corporate Partner at Harneys; Murray Roberts, Director at Harneys Fiduciary; and Amir Weitmann, Managing Partner at venture capital fund Champel Capital, will consider key moments in the lifecycle of a company and some critical issues for start-up founders to think about.

In recent months, there has been an increase in instructions relating to LIBOR facility amendments, driven by the planned discontinuation of LIBOR on 31 December 2021.

One of the many flexible features of the BVI Business Companies Act 2004 (the BC Act) is the ability both to continue a foreign company as a BVI company under the BC Act and also to continue a BVI company under the laws of another jurisdiction (commonly referred to, respectively, as a continuation and a discontinuation or continuation out). This guide provides a brief overview of the process and requirements for continuations and discontinuations.

The Hong Kong Stock Exchange has recently published a consultation paper seeking market feedback on proposals to create a listing regime for special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) in Hong Kong. The move shortly follows the introduction of the new rules by the Singapore Stock Exchange earlier in the month that enable SPACs to be listed on its Main Board.

The Foundation Companies Act, 2017 (the Foundation Companies Act) introduced the foundation company as a new type of corporate vehicle in the Cayman Islands. The Foundation Companies Act is drafted to allow the foundation company to be rooted in Cayman Islands company law, but function like a civil law foundation and only applies to companies that have been declared by the Registrar of Companies (Registrar) to be a foundation company. This guide sets out the key features of foundation companies and how they are formed and operated.

In this episode, Transactional Partner Rachel Graham and Dispute Resolution Counsel Francesca Gibbons look at information disclosure and the available options in respect of BVI companies.

In our second episode George Weston, Partner in our Corporate team in the BVI and an expert on ECM and M&A transactions, and Murray Roberts, Director at Harneys Fiduciary based on the US West Coast, discuss de-SPAC transactions and the options available for structuring business combinations where a SPAC is incorporated offshore.

It would stretch credibility to suggest that developments in BVI M&A practice were the most noteworthy aspect of the last 12 months, or the one that will most interest future historians. That being said, it was certainly a year in which regulatory developments, combined with global macro events, left M&A lawyers in the BVI adapting rapidly to a new world.