The Limited Liability Partnerships Law was designed to seduce big firms to set up offices here in the 1990s because it protected company directors if they were sued or went bankrupt. Senator Stuart Syvret was suspended from the States over it after alleging that business interests had effectively ‘bought’ legislation and questioning the role of former Senator Reg Jeune, whose company could have benefited from it. Assistant Economic Development Minister Alan Maclean has broken the news to States Members that despite all the expense and turmoil, not one company registered. The issue has been raised again by St Martin Deputy Bob Hill. Deputy Maclean said that it was argued that because of the requirement that firms should file a £5m bond under the LLP law, a requirement unique to the Island, Jersey was placed at a disadvantage. Economic Development Minister Philip Ozouf intends to review the law. He said that the formation of LLPs were vital for the future of the private equity/hedge funds business that is growing rapidly. The Senator said that the UK established an LLP law in 2001 and it is also available to professionals in more than 40 US states as well as other countries.
Jersey Evening Post
