Business advisory Quantuma expands into British Virgin Islands

International consultancy Quantuma has arrived in the British Virgin Islands, with the launch of a new office. The move sees the firm further strengthen its presence in key offshore finance centres.

Andrew Hosking, Head of International at Quantuma, said, “The opening of the new office in the British Virgin Islands builds on our momentum in expanding our international service capability across the globe and strengthens our position as a key player in complex cross-border advisory work.”

Quantuma has 18 UK offices, but in recent years it has been expanding its international footprint. Enabled by its 2020 merger with K3 Capital Group, its new financial backing has enabled Quantuma to leverage mergers and acquisitions to ramp up its growth.

The firm’s arrival in the British Virgin Islands is the latest move as it looks to reach key offshore financial centres. Recently this saw the company launch a Singapore office, while appointing Managing Directors Luke Furler and Ellyn Tann to lead its Asia-Pacific team. The news takes Quantuma’s international office count to six – alongside other established offices in Poland, the UAE, Cyprus, the Cayman Islands and Mauritius.

The British Virgin Islands office will be led by Caribbean region lead, Angela Barkhouse. She arrived with the firm in January 2021, when it established its new office in the Cayman Islands, following the acquisition of local firm Alchemy.

Barkhouse added, “The addition of the British Virgin Islands office will cement Quantuma’s status as a key player in the Caribbean region, as well as bolstering our position as a major player for cross-border cases.”

Insolvency practitioner, Toni Shukla, also joins Quantuma, and will lead the British Virgin Islands office and team, taking on the role of Director. She brings over 15 years of expertise in complex cross-border liquidations and receiverships to the role, including leading a pioneering engagement that saw the first recognition of a foreign insolvency proceeding in the Dubai International Finance Centre Court.

Shukla said of her new challenge, “I am delighted to be joining Quantuma as a Director. Quantuma’s recent growth and international expansion is extremely impressive, and I look forward to developing our local capabilities in the Caribbean region as a key advisory firm.”

Operating as a standalone office, the new team will work closely with the local professional community, providing a full advisory offering including restructuring and insolvency, cross-border asset recovery, investigations, and eDiscovery. At the same time, it will work closely with Barkhouse and the Cayman Islands office to support the wider Caribbean region, as well as working with colleagues in the UK, UAE, Cyprus, Poland, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Mauritius.

Local economy

The British Virgin Islands is a British overseas territory in the Caribbean. Comprising of four main islands and many smaller ones, the archipelago is renowned for its reef-lined beaches and yachting destinations – but arguably it is even better known as a tax haven. The British Virgin Islands host a zero-percent taxation policy; with no capital gains tax, gift tax, inheritance tax, sales tax or value-added tax across the islands. As such, this has long allowed businesses to set up offshore companies there as a means of evading tax.

This attraction of large companies and financial operators in turn provides opportunities for professional services firms, offering their advisory and accounting knowhow to offshore entities. Last year, this saw Teneo swoop for the restructuring arm of KPMG in the Cayman and British Virgin Islands, it prioritised the Caribbean for winning future insolvency work among holding companies for businesses operating in major economies such as China and Hong Kong.

Closer to the UK, meanwhile, with demand for financial services consulting growing in Jersey (where the standard rate of corporate tax is also 0%), Sionic announced the expansion of its offshore presence and international reach.