Fund-Technology.com

Walkers see rise in distressed funds

Posted: 08 September 2008

Walkers, the global offshore law firm has seen a rise in distressed funds work in the first half of 2008. The firm, which has dedicated distressed funds groups in its Cayman, British Virgin Islands (BVI) and Jersey offices, has seen its integrated approach of combining funds, insolvency, and litigation expertise as a valuable offering for its clients who are establishing new funds as well as those liquidating current funds.

"We are seeing a lot of new instructions from distressed funds in our BVI office," said Richard May, a partner on the Distressed Funds team in BVI, which was launched in March 2008. "It is important that hedge funds ensure that they get their redemption provisions right from the beginning and structure their funds appropriately to protect themselves against potential liquidity issues that might crop up in the future. By paying attention to the details at the start, they can save themselves and their investors a lot of headaches later."

The Walkers Distressed Funds group was developed to help investment funds best serve the interests of their investors. The team has broad-ranging experience across funds, litigation, and insolvency work to provide a full range of services for the entire lifecycle of a fund.

The firm has found that by integrating these practices early on, the funds are more aware of their options - especially when jurisdictions such as the US, Cayman, BVI, and Jersey can have differences in how funds can be liquidated and the rights of investors.

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