JP Integra Group, a specialist financial services firm headquartered in the Cayman Islands, has expanded the firm’s offering to target the private capital sector, made several important hires and has established a presence in the US market, Phil Griffiths, group director, JP Integra, told Cayman Funds Magazine.
Until earlier this year, the form was known as the JP Funds Group. After securing both a Cayman Trust and Company Management Licence, Griffiths said it changed its name to the JP Integra Group to better reflect its more diversified offering.
“In addition to the group’s traditional fund creation, fund administration and trading support services, we now offer corporate structuring and secretarial services, trust, fiduciary and legal project management activities,” he said.
The firm has also made a number of new hires. Peter Cockhill, a former managing partner at Ogier, has joined as the group’s legal director; Eduardo D’Angelo P Silva, a former president of the Cayman Islands Bankers Association, has joined as managing director of JP Management Services; Dave van Duynhoven, who has previously been Cayman head of operations for both Ogier and Appleby, has joined as Group COO; Conrad Proud has joined from Rawlinson & Hunter as general manager of JP Integra Trust; and Gillian Allan has joined as a corporate administrator with JP Management Services.
Griffiths said that the firm has been targeting this expansion for some time. “It suits our company’s service culture and skill sets,” he said. “The significant growth in the private capital space has created interest from our existing clients plus we have seen an ever increasing demand from clients seeking a single point of contact to project manage these types of deals many of which are complex and require coordination with numerous service providers.
“With this in mind, we set about attracting the right people to work and partner with; we wanted experienced legal, trust and corporate services professionals that could take on the challenges and opportunities of this exciting area of the financial markets.”
The firm has also established a presence in the US. Peter Kristensen, one of its founding partners, has relocated to the US and will head JP Integra LLC, USA. “Peter’s 20 plus years’ experience in both the fund and capital markets industry match perfectly with our target clients and services we have been asked to provide. Peter will be located in Florida, geographically close to our headquarters in Grand Cayman,” Griffiths said.
Griffiths said the change in the firm will allow it to work on much more complex projects. For example, the firm is currently putting together a private equity fund in West Africa, which will provide solar energy. JP Integra is handling all aspects from structuring advice, including instructing US and UK law firms on specific aspects, to fund establishment, banking and broking arrangements, administration, selecting directors, instructing local anti-corruption auditors and general project support.
He said that following the restructure, the firm has not established any specific target numbers on the expanded business.
“It is more that we want to maintain our ethos of working with our clients, where we treat their business like our own. We firmly believe getting it right today is better than fixing a problem tomorrow and it’s not how much we do that’s important; it’s what the client gets out of our service that matters.”
And though the firm has operating companies in the UK, Switzerland, Singapore and associated companies in the US and New Zealand, he is also bullish on the benefits as its main headquarters.
“Putting aside the rhetoric one hears especially from European sources regarding offshore centres, in our eyes the Cayman Islands is ideal for this type of business. Its tax neutrality allows the flow of international Private Capital to finance international projects, it has a stable political and economic environment and excellent service providers, it is one of the largest banking centres in the world and the 2nd largest captive insurance domicile. We are very bullish on Cayman being at the forefront of the Private Capital Industry,” Griffiths said.
JP Integra, Cayman Islands, Financial services, North America, Private capital, JP Funds Group, Cayman Trust, Company Management Licence, Appointment, M&A
