The company was at the head of one of the UK’s largest providers of healthcare services to the elderly and vulnerable. The order coupled with a rare privacy ‘gag’ ensured that the prospect of disruption to care services and the ‘real risk’ of distress being caused to residents and families was minimised.
The case exemplifies the dynamic approach the Guernsey courts take in applying a flexible statutory regime in a commercial context. It is a groundbreaking example of a robust and effective insolvency solution in a context of extreme commercial and, indeed, human, sensitivity.
Russia/Ukraine: sanctions and offshore implementation
Aki Corsoni-Husain, head of regulatory, Harneys
Recent sanctions on Russia and Ukraine, implemented through the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), have led to a significant increase in demand for legal advice. Cyprus, the British Virgin Islands (BVI) and Cayman Islands all comply with the CFSP: Cyprus as an EU member state, and BVI and Cayman as UK Overseas Territories – the UK being an EU member state.
The CFSP itself contains various sanctions, including a restriction on access of key Russian state-owned financial and credit institutions to the EU capital markets. As of 1 August 2014 the EU prohibits dealings in certain ‘transferable securities’ and ‘money market instruments’ issued by Sberbank, VTB Bank, Gazprombank, Vnesheconombank and Rosselkhozbank, and related parties.
The sanctions also include the imposition of an asset freeze on ‘designated persons’: corporates and individuals perceived to be linked to the misappropriation of Ukrainian state funds and destabilisation of Ukrainian sovereignty.
EU-based assets held directly or indirectly by 118 designated persons or through EU, BVI or Cayman structures based anywhere in the world are effectively frozen.
Panama: the friendly visa
Gisselle Hassan, associate, Hatstone Lawyers
The government of Panama has created specific visa programmes to help boost sectors such as energy, IT, tourism, real estate, construction and banking.
A popular visa is the Friendly Nations Visa, available to investors and professionals from 47 nations. Panama has recognised that “orderly immigration is a phenomenon that contributes to economic and social development, technology transfer and promotes cultural diversity”.
However, while the visa initiative offers benefits such as building commercial relations with the 47 nations and attracting a skilled labour force, it creates new challenges for the local population. These include a greater demand for higher living standards, inflation and balancing the employment needs of the local workforce.
Panama currently enjoys the benefits and with more than $6bn (£3.7bn) invested it is coping with the challenges. In difficult global economic times it is good to be a friend of Panama, a growing economy with low unemployment.
Gibraltar: modernising company law
