JFL: New regulations make Jersey more appealing for M&A activity

Friday 20 July 2018

New amendments to Jersey’s company law will add greater flexibility to the jurisdiction’s corporate environment and enhance its appeal for corporate restructuring and M&A activity, according to the CEO of Jersey Finance.

The new regulations, Companies (Demerger) (Jersey) Regulations 2018 were approved by Jersey’s government last week and aim to provide a better, clearer and more flexible framework for ‘demerging’ companies.

In particular, the regulations will enable the undertaking, property, rights and liabilities of a Jersey company to be divided amongst two or more companies, and to transfer their assets and liabilities.

Commenting on the new regulations, Geoff Cook, CEO, Jersey Finance, said: “Jersey has always sought to achieve an attractive platform for supporting cross-border corporate activity and firms here have continued to report strong pipelines of work in 2018. We’ve seen a steady rate of company registrations on our register, for example, whilst there are currently around 85 Jersey companies listed on exchanges around the world with a combined market capitalisation of around £260bn.

“These new regulations are designed to build on that success to create an environment that makes it easier and more cost-effective for companies wanting to demerge. Against a low interest rate backdrop, globally dynamic companies are increasingly looking to pursue growth strategies through M&A activity. We anticipate that this will drive a future need for good quality centres that can provide clear, straightforward and flexible regimes for corporate restructuring. With that in mind, we expect this sort of forward thinking to be well received by the market.”