Category Archives: Client Advisories

The Privy Council has upheld changes to a BVI company’s Articles of Association despite the changes being motivated by a desire to exclude a minority shareholder.

In A Company v A Funder, the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands has approved third party funding of commercial litigation in a case that falls outside of the typical insolvency context. This decision represents an incremental expansion of the availability of third party litigation funding in the Cayman Islands.

Court of Appeal provides guidance on the scope of an aggreived person for the purposes of section 273 of the Insolvency Act, 2003 and finds that avoidance relief under section 249 of the Insolvency Act, 2003 is not exclusively for the BVI Courts to grant.

Foundation Companies have been introduced as a new legal entity in the Cayman Islands. Similar to civil law foundations, they are likely to be put to diverse uses, including as a flexible wealth management tool.

Sanction granted to four linked schemes of arrangement in Ocean Rig, restructuring over US$3.69 billion of debt – the largest judicially approved restructuring in the Cayman Islands.

The Grand Court of the Cayman Islands has delivered judgment in the long-running claim by Primeo Fund (in Official Liquidation), a Madoff feeder fund, against its HSBC group administrator and custodian seeking in excess of US$2 billion in damages. The Court dismissed the claim on grounds including that Primeo had failed to establish that any acts or omissions by the defendants had caused its loss. This important judgment provides guidance to fund industry professionals concerning the scope of their obligations.

Anecdotally, there has been a marked increase recently in the use of arbitration as a means by which to resolve commercial disputes in the Cayman Islands. In light of the increasing prevalence of arbitration, it is timely to remind potential users of arbitration in the Cayman Islands of its availability and possibly significant advantages over other forms of dispute resolution. We therefore address in this brief note some common questions relating to arbitration in this jurisdiction.

In a novel judgment of Mr Justice McMillan delivered on 1 August 2017, the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands awarded costs against non-parties that did not fund or control the proceedings in issue. The Court also clarified that the costs rule for sanction applications (CWR O.24 r.9) is applicable to an application by a liquidator under sections 103 and/or 138 of the Companies Law.

New legislation has been enacted in the British Virgin Islands (the “BVI”) to require registered agents to establish and maintain a beneficial ownership database (“UBO Database”) and requiring the Government of the British Virgin Islands to establish and maintain a search platform, referred to as Beneficial Ownership Secure System (“BOSS”), enabling each licensed registered agent to establish such database and a limited number of designated persons to access each database established by a registered agent.

The Privy Council clarified the priorities in a liquidation of investors who seek to redeem their shares in a Cayman Islands fund before the commencement of its winding up but who remain unpaid: Pearson v Primeo [2017] UKPC 19.