“Additionally, the New York and London marketplaces have become increasingly aware of the modern, flexible and user-friendly merger regime afforded under the new regulations, and we are seeing more work from those regions as well," he added.

According to Walkers, the new BVI legislation allows for an extremely quick merger arrangement to be concluded between the relevant merging entities, and, unlike other jurisdictions, without any requirement to get a court sanction or for the Directors of the merging entities to provide personal certifications as to the fairness of the merger. The legislative framework introduces a large amount of flexibility into the merger process and is available for both domestic mergers as well as for international mergers involving foreign companies.

As a result of this increased flexibility, Walkers’ BVI office has recently been involved in groundbreaking corporate deals for major global companies including Apax Partners, Tommy Hilfiger Corporation, German Media Partners, ABN Amro, and two major Russian corporations, Russian Copper Company and ZAO JFC Group, the largest fresh-fruit supplier in Russia.

To help manage this work, Walkers has brought on Matthew Cowman, Phillip Sacks, and Stuart Baldwin. Mr. Cowman and Mr. Baldwin specialize in project and acquisition finance and corporate transactions such as mergers and acquisitions. Mr. Sacks advises on a variety of investment funds, private equity, and general corporate and commercial matters. The three lawyers represent more than twenty years of legal experience with corporate and law firm work in Australia, London, Bahrain and the Caribbean.

“We are very pleased to have Matthew, Phillip, and Stuart as part of the Walkers team. They exemplify the high level of experience and professionalism that Walkers’ clients expect,” said Heidi de Vries, Managing Partner of Walkers’ BVI office. “In addition to the growth in corporate and finance work, the increased amount of private equity work – both private equity acquisition work and private equity fund formation – that we are seeing in BVI means we need to have a strong team in place.”

Walkers has also seen a marked increase in BVI investment funds activity. In response, Walkers established an Investment Funds and Private Equity Department in its BVI office earlier this year, doubling the number of funds lawyers in the BVI office, with plans to add more lawyers before the end of the year.

"BVI investment funds and private equity funds are also taking advantage of the flexibility of the provisions of the BVI Business Companies Act, which provides some unique features particularly favourable to investment funds and private equity funds, such as the ability to incorporate companies which have the power to issue an unlimited number of shares,” continued Ms. de Vries. “Such statutory provisions are contributing to the popularity of the BVI as a jurisdiction for the establishment of hedge funds and private equity funds. The growth of fund formations in the BVI in recent years has resulted in the BVI now being recognised world-wide as the most popular offshore jurisdiction for the establishment of fund vehicles behind the Cayman Islands."

Walkers is now the second largest offshore law firm in the BVI and was recently noted for its strong BVI practice by the leading legal directories, including Chambers, IFLR 1000, and PLC Which Lawyer? Yearbook. In particular, PLC Which Lawyer? Yearbook highly recommended Walkers’ BVI attorneys for their expertise in Trusts, Offshore, High Net-Worth Individuals, Dispute Resolution, and Corporate/M&A, and ranked Walkers as the only highly recommended firm in BVI for Securitisation matters.