BVI Company News

Last week Vietnam’s Export Import Commercial Bank (Eximbank) said that it has raised its capital base by 1/3 after ending its share sales to foreign investors. Its registered capital rose 33.3% in the end of May, as it ended selling shares to Sumitomo Mitsui, Japan’s third largest bank.

Eximbank sold 5% of stake to British Virgin Islands-registered VOF Investment Ltd, 4.5% to MAE under South Korea’s top mutual fund Mirae Asset group, and 0.5% to Mirrae Asset Maps Opportunity Vietnam Equity Balanced Fund1.

On January 18, 2008, property firm Fil-Estate Land Inc. will issue $12.5 million worth of 5-year convertible bonds that represent the balance of its $25-million bond facility.

Fil-Estate informed the stock exchange that it signed an agreement on the bonds with a professional British Virgin Islands-registered fund Lim Asia Special Situation Master Fund Ltd.

The bonds issued by Fil-Estate can be converted into company shares of stock at a rate of P1.50 per share within 5 years. They carry a coupon rate of 4%, with an intended yield-to-maturity of 14% in case the notes are not converted by holders within 5 years.

According to Fil-Estate, proceeds from the bond issue will be used for funding the development of its projects. The projects to be funded include phases 5 and 6 of Manila Southwoods in Metro Manila; Boracay Villas, Forest Hills in Antipolo City; Sto. Domingo Residential Tower and Thomas Residences in Quezon City; Sta. Barbara Heights in Iloilo province; as well as Newport Hills and Nasugbu Harbortown in Batangas province.

Olympia Capital International, the alternative investment fund administration specialist, has been acquired by CACEIS Group, a leading player in institutional securities services. Olympia Capital provides high quality services to clients in the alternative investment fund industry, administering some $70 billion in assets for funds domiciled in the Cayman Islands, the British Virgin Islands, Bermuda, Ireland and the U.S. CACEIS provides securities services to its clients worldwide, from fund administration and custody to securities lending and foreign exchange.

Commenting on the acquistion, Mr. Lewnowski, the founder and former owner of Olympia Capital International, stated that “The combination of Olympia Capital’s and CACEIS’s experience in alternatives, financial strength and quality is in the best interest of our clients. CACEIS’s significant experience in providing customised services to the alternative investment community and its financial stability reflected by an impressive AA- rating from Standard and Poor’s will enable us to deliver new and innovative services to our clients on a global basis”.

Resolute Capital Growth Fund made an announcement that its shares have been listed on the Irish Stock Exchange. The listing was sponsored by NCB Stockbrokers Ltd., one of Ireland’s largest independent securities firms.

Being listed on the Irish Stock Exchange is an important step in the BVI fund’s objective of providing the highest possible level of transparency to investors. Carlo Scevola, president of Resolute Capital, has said, “This listing is further evidence of our commitment to provide our investors with the maximum visibility into our fund operations. We strongly believe greater transparency leads to better informed investors and, ultimately, more predictable, less volatile markets.”

Resolute Capital Growth Fund is a professional investment fund registered in the British Virgin Islands, licensed with the BVI Financial Services Commission. Since 2003, it specializes on low-volatility, market-neutral and performance-driven trading strategies, and invests primarily in currencies. Annual returns of the fund are about 30%, and declared maximum risk made 2%. The fund has developed proprietary methodologies to provide investors with high returns through any type of market conditions.

The Listing Committee of the Bermuda Stock Exchange (BSX) has made the announcement that it has approved the listing of the Common Shares of RenFin II Ltd., a company incorporated in the British Virgin Islands. The BVI-based RenFin II is registered as a closed end investment fund.

The Company listing was effective from 24 July 2007, for the authorised share capital consisting of 4,999,900 shares of this BVI company. The shares are to be distributed to Qualified Investors by the appointed placement agent, Renaissance Capital Investment Management Limited, another company incorporated in the British Virgin Islands. The Common Shares listing of RenFin II was sponsored by Reid Management Limited.

The investment objective of the BVI company listed is to achieve medium term capital growth through Investments in Financial Institutions in the Russian Region, Central and Eastern Europe. These plans were defined by the Investment Manager as undertaking an initial offering, or undertaking mergers and acquisitions in the next 3-4 years.

BVI-registered Spinnaker Funds announced that it has purchased 914.7 million shares of Indonesia’s PT Trimegah, at the price of 215 rupiah a share (1 usd = 9,025 rupiah). This deal makes the BVI Fund Group the owner of 25% stake in the company.

Spinnaker Funds said in its statement that the stock was acquired on July 9. The shares were bought from United Investment Inc, PT Philadel Terra Lestara, and businessman Pieter Tanuri. The Fund Group representatives said also that the purchase will launch a mandatory tender offer, as required by the capital markets regulator, to acquire more shares from the public. Currently, 49.57% of company’s stock is held by the public.

The tender offer price was set at the same level of 215 rupiah, but the BVI Funds did not specify in its statement how many additional shares of Indonesian company it plans to purchase.

A new private equity property fund was launched some days ago by De Rosen Capital Management, to work in the market of exclusive homes for multi-millionaires. The new Global Waterfront Fund, domiciled in the British Virgin Islands, is looking to raise $100 million by investing and developing waterfront residential property in the premium Mediterranean and Caribbean locations.

The fund is going to create a stream of development projects to be sold on completion, and will seek to achieve absolute returns. The projects will include both the development of rural land and renovations of rebuilding existing properties.

The locations chosen for the launch of project are St. Barts, Harbour Island in the Bahamas, St. Tropez, Cap d’Antibes, Cap Ferrat, and similar resorts.

De Rosen, an international property developer, put together the fund with Mark Shadwick, director of several offshore hedge funds, and Olivier Dupraz, which is a former managing director at UBS, because there are more deals than capital available. This measure will presumably help  to attract capital for further development.

Currently the new BVI-based fund is seeking capital commitments by way of a share issue in both Euro and Dollar classes, with the minimum subscription is $500,000 or €500,000. The purpose of the fund is to return to investors in excess of 20% per year.

The Global Waterfront Fund is now marketing to institutional, family office and ultra high-net-worth investors.

NTT DoCoMo Inc. announced that it has signed an agreement with Gobi Fund II L.P., under which it will invest $10 million in the fund.

Gobi Fund II L.P. is a venture capital fund operated by the BVI company Gobi Partners Inc. - a company incorporated in 2002 and having offices in the British Virgin Islands, Beijing, Hong Kong and Shanghai. The BVI company and the Fund are operated by Thomas G. Tsao, Wai Kit Lau and Lawrence Tse.

The Gobi Fund will target venture companies in China working on the convergence of telecommunications, media and technology, within the IT and digital media sectors. The Fund will start investment activities already this month, and will operate for ten years. It is targeting a final close of $120 million.

DoCoMo said that its decision to enter into agreement with the Gobi Fund II was partially prompted by the successful performance of its investment in the Gobi Fund I in December 2003.

Last week “The Fortress Global Value Fund”, established and managed by Fortress Fund Managers Limited, was launched in the British Virgin Islands at an initial offering of US$1. Fortress Global is structured as a fund of funds and administered by ATU Fund Administrators (BVI) Ltd.

Fortress Fund had always expected a lot for this new fund. After it was launched last year in November, and after just some months of operation since the fund’s initial offering closed on September 15, 2006, it has provided a return of 6.86%.

After the BVI launch, Fortress Investment Manager Roger Cave told about his great expectations regarding the fund’s performance, “We are highly confident that our years of experience in the investments field will aid our new venture into the international markets and assist investors, institutional and individual alike, realise strong growth in their quest for greater global diversification within their portfolios”.

The BVI-launched fund has already accumulated total assets of US$7 million, and its net asset value is now US$1.0686 per share.