Offshore Part 1 – Search for El Dorado

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Offshore firms are increasingly building Brazil, as well as other Latin American destinations, into their emerging markets portfolio. LB assesses the varying strategies in tackling the New World.

The opportunities in Brazil for offshore legal advisers are increasingly on the rise. In December 2010, Conyers Dill & Pearman’s São Paulo office managing partner Alan Dickson provided Bermuda law advice to Brazilian investment bank BTG Pactual on its sale of a $1.6bn stake to a consortium of international investors, marking the biggest eversovereign wealth fund commitment in Brazil. Again led by Dickson, in July 2011 Conyers, alongside Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy in New York and Arias, Fabrega & Fabrega in Panama, advised Queiroz Galvão Óleo e Gás (QGOG) – a Brazilian conglomerate involved in developing large-scale projects in various sectors – on a $700m bond issue to refinance the drilling rigs Atlantic Star and Alaskan Star.

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Worlds colliding

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The Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive, dreaded by the offshore world, has now been agreed. LB finds out why the offshore world’s law firms are still smiling

After laboured negotiations and more than 30 drafts, the Alternative Investment Fund Managers (AIFM) Directive was finally approved by the EU parliament in November 2010. As the terms were thrashed out in the preceding 18 months, the funds industry held its breath, stifling funds activity both on and offshore. The offshore world is now resting a little easier.

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Emerging targets

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Mourant Ozannes’ merger this summer created another large fish in the global offshore pond. Firms now have to focus on clients from new economies to stay ahead

It was nearly a decade in the making. Jersey and Guernsey titans Mourant du Feu & Jeune and Ozannes announced their merger earlier this year but, for market observers, it was a tie-up that had been on the cards ever since Jersey and Guernsey rivals Carey Langlois and Olsens merged in 2003.

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Flying colours

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Responding to the relentless negative publicity directed at offshore territories, the International Financial Centres Forum was formally launched in London at the end of last year. Legal Business assesses the drivers behind this development and which offshore law firms have continued to expand despite the global economic crisis

‘The offshore world is tired of being the world’s whipping boy,’ says John Collis, chairman of Conyers Dill & Pearman. ‘Most of the negative publicity fired at offshore markets is simply wrong, and we now have a committed agenda to getting the story straight.’

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