The offshore transactional market continues to go from strength to strength. Our annual focus on the ten largest offshore firms again reveals impressive activity levels during the last year. According to Appleby’s recent private equity report, during the third quarter of 2015 deal activity was even more robust than usual: there were 660 offshore deals during the quarter, worth a total of $60.7bn. Of those, 26 involved private equity firms either acquiring or disposing of their investments. With a combined worth of $16.1bn, private equity deals therefore represented over a quarter of total offshore activity by value in Q3 2015.

Material growth in private equity-backed M&A is a trend that looks set to continue, according to Ogier global managing partner Nick Kershaw. ‘The asset classes are diverse, from real estate to trust companies, but there is consistent acquisitive appetite,’ he says. Ogier acted on several high-profile deals in 2015, such as providing Jersey law advice to Palamon Capital Partners on the £200m joint acquisition with Corsair Capital of Currencies Direct.

Continue reading “Standing tall – 2015 in review for the offshore elite”