Guernsey is a great place to do business, Jon Moulton, the Founder and Managing
Partner of Alchemy Partners, announced last week.
Mr Moulton, who now lives on the Island, was the keynote speaker at the Guernsey
Private Equity Funds Masterclass in London.
More than 100 funds industry practitioners attended the event last Thursday.
Mr Moulton explained that Guernsey has a solid infrastructure, including not just
fund administrators but accounting, tax and legal advisers who offered a personal
service.
He went on to add that a major attraction is that Guernsey is “not flaky”, but has sensible
laws and regulations which are always updated quickly, so that the Island is
at the forefront of developments such as the introduction of new products and
services.
Mr Moulton also praised the speed of doing business in Guernsey, suggesting that
“things happen at a pace which is inconceivable in the UK”.
He added that Guernsey’s taxation structure was straightforward and
easy to understand and was noticeably more stable than the regime in the UK.
“Overall it [Guernsey] is a nice place to operate,” said Mr Mouton.
However, Mr Moulton observed that the immediate prospects looked gloomy for the private
equity industry as a whole.
With this in mind, he suggested that Guernsey’s ability to continue to attract private equity and the business
of other asset classes would ensure its sustained strength in the investment
funds industry.