Whilst we have all stayed put in recent months as a consequence of swathes of restrictions on global travel that have been in place at various times during the COVID-19 pandemic, the international family businesses we act for have continued to seek advice on moving their holding structures across the globe to more 'favourable' jurisdictions. For example, we have recently been working with Asian and Middle Eastern businesses who are looking to relocate their holding structures to jurisdictions, including Jersey and Guernsey.
Such a move is often motivated by a wish to relocate to a more robust international finance centre in order to improve credit lines and plan for the future succession of the business. Invariably the relocation of a holding company, and usually some of the underlying special purpose vehicles and investment companies, provides a good opportunity to also tidy up and improve the structure of the business.
We are fortunate to be able to be involved throughout the whole process. This includes helping to identify potentially suitable jurisdictions, bringing together advice from those jurisdictions by drawing on our expansive network of professional contacts; making introductions to service providers; and commenting on the most appropriate structuring options. We are also able to implement the new structure, building a more robust governance framework around it, and seeing it start to work not just for the current generation but also successive generations.
This exercise often goes hand in hand with advising on personal succession planning and private wealth structuring for business owners, as naturally this is intrinsically linked with aspirations for the wider family business.
This opportunity to guide our clients through the process of relocating their business structure(s) and starting to put into place their plans for succession thereby gaining an even greater understanding of their business, family and hopes for the future is a wonderfully rewarding aspect of our work.
Originally published 01 / 07 / 2021
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