BVI’s place in the corporate/M&A landscape of SE Asia

2018 was a busy year for deal making across Southeast Asia, with clients utilizing both new and existing British Virgin Islands (BVI) companies as part of their deal structures. According to figures released by the BVI Financial Services Commission, the jurisdiction’s regulator, by the end of the third quarter, 2018, a total of 28,499 new BVI companies had been incorporated in 2018 – a significant increase on new incorporation numbers for the first three quarters of the two previous years.

We, in the Singapore office of the Maples Group, were fortunate to act on deals involving BVI entities across the region, and across sectors including fintech, biotech, resources, manufacturing and real estate for both foreign investors coming into the region and existing regional players disposing of, or acquiring, assets.

Using BVI companies in deal structures

As readers will no doubt be aware, typically, BVI companies are used at the top of investment structures, either to act as the ultimate holding vehicle for an institution’s or an individual’s stake in an underlying business or asset, or as the conduit or joint venture for investment monies (for an investor group) to be made available to the underlying business.

Michael Gagie is a managing partner of Maples Group in Singapore. He can be contacted at michael.gagie@maples.com

Maples and Calder (Singapore)
1 Raffles Place #36-01,
One Raffles Place,
Singapore 048616