The Cayman Islands continue to be busy with cross-border activity and remains the most active offshore jurisdiction. Cayman-incorporated companies were the target of 421 transactions worth a combined USD60.9bn in the first half of 2018, representing 31% of all offshore deals and 28% of total offshore deal value during that time.
Offshore IPO's typically occur on exchanges in either the US, London or Hong Kong. The latter is especially popular with Cayman companies in particular currently queuing up to list on the exchange.
Asian companies looking to incorporate often find the relative straightforwardness of the Cayman Islands legislation attractive. Legal teams such as Appleby's who are on the ground in Hong Kong and Shanghai, are well-placed with a clear Asian focus.
This year our Cayman team advised the Bank of N.T Butterfield & Son Limited (Butterfield) in connection with the acquisition of Deutsche Bank's Global Trust Solutions business; excluding its US operations, which comprises some 1,000 trust structures for roughly 900 private clients. We were pleased to work alongside Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, as lead counsel, advising on all aspects of the transaction including regulatory, trust, employment and corporate matters.
Simon Raftopoulos, partner at Appleby commented: "We are delighted to have assisted long-standing client Butterfield on this successful acquisition. We are very happy to be a part of the success of our growing client and to utilise our expertise and global platform to do so."
The latest edition of Offshore-i, an Appleby report that provides data and insight on merger and acquisition activity in the major offshore financial centres, focuses on transactions announced over the first half of 2018. Click here to access the report.
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