By Helen Burggraf , Contributing Editor, International Adviser

The UK- and Gibraltar-based Blacktower Group is expanding into the Caribbean and Latin American markets, with the establishment of an office in the Cayman Islands.

The company has obtained a Securities and Investment Business Licence from the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority, which will enable it to act as a securities adviser and securities manager of its clients’ assets in addition to advising in a more conventional wealth management capacity, as it does in its European businesses, according to John Westwood, chief executive.

“Initially we will be concentrating on our traditional strengths in wealth management, but we intend to expand our service offering there, as we build the Cayman business over the next couple of years,” Westwood said.

The new office will be located in George Town on Grand Cayman, and it is being structured as a separate company that will sit within the Blacktower Group structure.

In a separate development, Westwood said Blacktower has receive branch licensing approval in Malta and Germany, two markets the company announced plans to enter earlier this year. As reported, it entered the German market and certain others through a merger with WorldWide Broker Netherlands, with Worldwide due to rebrand as Blacktower early in the new year.

Not counting the Cayman Islands office, which is due to open before the end of the year, Blacktower has some 10 offices in eight countries, including one in Surrey in the UK; three offices in Spain; a new one in Malta; and one each in Germany, Portugal, France, Gibraltar and Italy.

At the time of agreeing the merger with Blacktower, WorldWideBroker had a head office in the Netherlands and satellite offices in Switzerland, the Czech Republic, and Greece.

Westwood said the decision to expand into the Cayman Islands came about as part of a natural evolution of the business, as Blacktower already had a growing number of clients there. Many of them spend half the year in Cayman, and the other half in one of European markets in which Blacktower is well established, he explained.

Blacktower will look to accommodate expatriates of all nationalities in Cayman, including Americans, and sees the market as breaking down into two categories, according to Westwood: “working expatriates, who will be needing help with their retirement planning, and high-net-worth individuals, who will be interested in wealth preservation and investment planning.”

Westwood said two people are being hired initially, and have agreed to join Blacktower’s Cayman office, but he is not yet releasing their names. By the end of 2014, Westwood said he expects to have around six people established in the office.

Expansion

As reported, Blacktower announced earlier this year that it was planning to open an office in  Malta, extending its footprint even further to the east than it did last year when it established its first Italian outpost in Rome.

Blacktower launched an IFA network, open to other European IFAs, in 2011. Nexus Global, or NXG as it is called, enables member firms to offer a range of exclusive funds provided to NXG by Quilter Cheviot Investment Management, through a strategic partnership.

In May, Blacktower unveiled what Westwood said was the company’s first investment fund, in partnership with Cheviot Asset Management.

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