Govt to modernise funds legislation

Local funds legislation will be modernised, the Gibraltar Government confirmed as it announced the new framework will be published this week.

The Government is poised to publish the Limited Partnerships Bill and the Protected Cell Limited Partnerships Bill as part of the modernisation of Gibraltar funds legislation.

The new limited partnerships legislation will repeal the existing Limited Partnerships Act 1927.

It has also been designed to provide a framework for the partnership interests of limited partnerships being represented by shares, bonds, notes, loans or other debt securities or instruments, limited partners being able to undertake a more active role in the affairs of the limited partnership without forfeiting their limited liability, and the general partners of a limited partnership being able to elect whether or not the limited partnership is to have legal personality.

“The Protected Cell Limited Partnerships Bill allows fund limited partnerships to create one or more cells for the purpose of protecting and segregating cellular assets from non-cellular assets and keep each cell separate and separately identifiable from other cells,” the Government said.

This legislation has been based on the protected cell company legislation that was first introduced in Gibraltar in 2001.

The Government has been working closely with the Gibraltar Funds and Investment Association (GFIA) in reviewing and updating funds legislation in Gibraltar and as part of this work the Government instructed a leading expert in the UK to support Gibraltar in the development of this legislation.

Gibraltar Finance’s Tim Haynes worked with leading experts Diala Minott from Paul Hastings LLP in London and Jonathan Garcia from Isolas as Head of the Technical Committee at GFIA together with Julian Sacarello at the GFSC over many months to make this legislation a reality.

“In Gibraltar, we have always prided ourselves in our ability to work in partnership with the private sector to create modern, robust legislation that best serves the financial services industry, putting Gibraltar atthe forefront of legal innovation,” said the Minister for Digital and Financial Services, Albert Isola.

“This is of increasing importance as we continue to enhance our appeal to the globalfunds industry. I am most grateful to Jonathan Garcia and the Executive Committee of GFIA for their ever-constructive engagement with Government and Diala Minott, for her expert and incisive work in this process. We will continue to work with Jay Gomez (Triay & Triay) and James Lasry (Hassans) on all matters GFIA for the benefit of this important sector of our community.”