Jersey showcased in Africa and North America

Tuesday 18 February 2014

Jersey’s role as a specialist centre for wealth management, alternative fund and corporate listings work has been highlighted to senior finance professionals in the US, Canada and South Africa.

The Global Head of Business Development for Jersey Finance, Richard Corrigan, recently attended the Legal Week Private Client Forum Americas event in California. As part of a strategy to develop Jersey’s private client offering for the Latin America region, he hosted a lunch for senior private client lawyers from North, Central and South America.

He then travelled to Canada to attend the FT International Financial Centres briefing and dinner held in Toronto where he was a panellist for a session entitled ‘attracting investment and driving growth in the current climate’. He used the opportunity to promote the Island’s strengths as a centre for cross-border investment and highlighted Jersey’s credentials as a leading jurisdiction for listings.

Mr Corrigan said feedback from delegates at both events had been very positive for Jersey.

“In particular, attending these events in the USA and Canada has acted as a useful step in our plans to establish key contacts and build private client business in the Latin America region. Meanwhile, we see real opportunities to grow business levels right across the funds, private wealth and corporate sectors in Africa.

“Some tangible business leads have already arisen from our presence at the Mining Indaba event that can help boost Jersey’s growing mining sector, whilst given that the UK is one of the largest investors into Africa, we are well positioned both from a regulatory and time-zone point of view to facilitate private equity investment into Africa.”

In addition, Gary Hales, Jersey Finance’s head of business development in Europe and Africa, attended the African Mining Indaba in Cape Town as part of a Jersey delegation including Locate Jersey. This event provided an ideal forum to highlight the Island’s business environment and corporate and legal services to a large number of senior mining executives.

Mr Hales also attended the Private Equity in Southern Africa Conference in Stellenbosch by the FT, the South African Private Equity and Venture Capital Association and the Emerging Markets Private Equity Association.