Offshore compulsory winding up petitions drop
Appleby’s Cayman-based litigation and insolvency Partner, Tony Heaver-Wren
(CNS Business): Compulsory winding up petition filings in most offshore jurisdictions fell, on average, by 31% in the first three quarters of 2014 as compared to the same period last year, according to Appleby, one of the world’s largest providers of offshore legal, fiduciary and administration services.
The new data, published in Snapshot: Interim Report – 2014 Petition Filings, points to an about-face turn from the spike experienced across many offshore jurisdictions in 2013 insolvency proceedings.
The report examines Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Guernsey, the Isle of Man and Mauritius. In the case of Mauritius the Appleby report notes that the drop in filings is far less due to the continuing contribution of a high number of domestic trade insolvencies in that more highly populated jurisdiction.
“What we are seeing is demonstrative of improving market conditions that have given investors opportunities to exit long-standing investments without recourse to formal insolvency processes,†said Appleby’s Cayman-based litigation and insolvency Partner, Tony Heaver-Wren.
“This trend has developed notwithstanding the fact that many of the claims that might be investigated and asserted by liquidators against service providers are approaching limitation periods and will soon become statute barred.â€
This year in the Cayman Islands, which was the subject of the firm’s earlier Snapshot: Analysis of Cayman Petition Filings 2008-2013, the total of all classes of petition filings is among the lowest of the last seven years. The firm’s latest report continues to consider all classes of petitions in Cayman (compulsory winding up petitions, petitions for conversion of voluntary liquidation to court supervised liquidations, schemes of arrangement and capital reductions), but focuses on wind-up petitions as a cross-jurisdictional comparison.
A more extensive analysis of the emerging patterns and trends, with the benefit of richer cross-jurisdictional data, will follow in Appleby’s annual Petitions Snapshot, scheduled for release in early 2015.
Category: Finance, Financial Services
