The Cayman Islands has retained its title of the busiest jurisdiction for offshore transactions in the first quarter of 2015.
This is according to law firm Appleby, which added that Cayman experienced a hike in total deal value over the final quarter of 2014.
Since Appleby began publishing its Offshore-i report in 2012, Cayman has dominated as the offshore jurisdiction of choice in nearly every quarter.
In the first quarter of 2015, Cayman saw 132 transactions, representing 25 percent of all deals. Following Cayman was the British Virgin Islands with 85 deals, Bermuda with 84, and Hong Kong, where 80 deals were recorded.
Like most offshore jurisdictions, deal volume decreased in Cayman although deal value jumped 160 percent to $17.4 billion when compared to the final quarter of 2014.
The value was partly driven by three deals worth in excess of $1 billion, including the acquisition of Cayman-incorporated communication equipment manufacturer Highlight Holding by Bermuda-based Highlight China for $4.7 billion.
The report also examined outbound deals in which an offshore jurisdiction acted as an acquirer. At $31.2 billion, Cayman saw the most spending on overseas transactions.
“This contributed to a quarter in which offshore jurisdictions spent a total of $84.7 billion, an increase of 32 percent over Q4 2014,” said Appleby.
Simon Raftopoulos, a Cayman-based partner at Appleby, said: “Cayman was again a major contributor to overall offshore deal activity in the first three months of this year, accounting for a quarter of all transactions and 20 of the 34 IPOs recorded. Cayman also enjoyed something of a bounce back in deal value, with a 160 percent jump over the previous quarter.”
Cayman Islands, Offshore-i, Appleby, Offshore Transactions
