Offshore firm Conyers Dill & Pearman has launched a Cyprus practice by forming an alliance with Cypriot firm Antis Triantafyllides & Sons (ATS). ATS will transfer a lawyer (yet to be named) to Conyers’ Moscow office where the practice will be based; both firms will exchange work across their joint offshore offices.
Competition between offshore firms has heated up in 2009, as this practice launch comes only a few months after both Conyers and Appleby opened a Mauritius office in July. The alliance also comes one year after Harneys formed a similar arrangement with Cyprus’ Aristodemou Loizides Yiolitis LLC.
Conyers said that its new practice will be a differentiating factor for the firm, and is part of its strategy for targeting BRIC markets. “Cyprus is a … preferred jurisdiction for Russian investment. [We] are already receiving instructions from clients,” said the Moscow managing partner Caroline O’Hare.
The firm is hoping to capture work from growing investment and trade relations between Russia and Cyprus. Cyprus is the third-largest investor in Russia and both countries enjoy a favourable tax treaty.
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