By Komfie Manalo, Opalesque Asia:

The Brazilian market prefers offshore funds that are set up in the Cayman Islands because of tradition and marketing, said said Martin Litwak, founder of Litwak & Partners, an offshore law firm that specializes in Latin America, in the latest Opalesque Brazil Roundtable.

“Cayman law firms were the first in marketing their services in the country and to creating bonds with local lawyers and banks,” Litwak said and added, “This has led to a preference with the first managers to set up offshore in Cayman over other jurisdictions. Managers who are launching tend to repeat what others have done in the past, which perpetuated that trend. That is why managers in Brazil prefer a Cayman to a BVI fund, which is a more flexible and cheaper jurisdiction. Funnily enough, if we take a look at the whole region, this preference appears only in Chile. All the rest of the countries prefer the British Virgin Islands.”

He made the comments after Thalius Hecksher, global managing director of business development for Apex Fund Services, a worldwide provider of fund administration services, said that offshore funds were starting to become more popular within the Brazilian market.

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