Insights

Author: Paula Fagan, Marketing Manager

As part of its latest key updates, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published guidance for Financial Services (FS) firms on preparing a wind-down plan. The purpose of a wind-down plan is to enable a FS firm to cease its regulated activities and exit the market in an orderly manner, if its business is no longer viable. The FCA states that it: ‘expects firms to consider the scenarios leading to financial stress, explore recovery options and, as a last resort, wind-down their business’.

Cross-border advisory firm Quantuma has strengthened its team in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) with the appointment of a senior restructuring specialist.

Merish Gujadhur joins Quantuma’s BVI office as an associate director from the Mauritius offices of a Big 4 firm where he spent almost a decade working as a senior member of their Business Recovery Services & Forensics team. Merish is a Chartered Accountant with a legal background. 

By Yaser Dajani, Managing Director and Quantuma’s Middle East lead

Insolvency, bankruptcy and restructuring laws continue to evolve across the Middle East. But there are still questions over whether these reforms are meeting their key aims of improved creditor protection and the survival of viable businesses in what remains a complex, varied and often under-utilized set of legal frameworks.

Drawing on the discussions from a Quantuma-hosted roundtable for lawyers and insolvency practitioners in London, Yaser Dajani looks at the thinking behind these developments and how to unlock the potential.

By Yaser Dajani, Managing Director and Quantuma’s Middle East lead

As we reported in an earlier article [link through to article two insolvency], new insolvency, bankruptcy and restructuring laws are opening up opportunities to rescue troubled businesses and boost asset recovery in the Middle East. But some cases have been more successful than others.

Drawing on the discussions from a Quantuma-hosted roundtable for lawyers and insolvency practitioners in London, Yaser Dajani assesses which recent cases have succeeded, which haven’t and what we can learn from the outcomes.

Author: Dominic Lay, Associate Director, K3 Tax Advisory

The Employee Ownership Association (EOA) has recently published a report about Employee-Owned Businesses (EOBs). The report highlights how EOBs are a growing ownership model in the UK and globally. It also looks in detail at the impact that employee ownership can have on a business.

Experts from business advisory firm Quantuma have completed a pre-pack administration sale of Sheffield headquartered Ventilation Centre Limited, securing the future of the business and protecting jobs for all employees.

How financial services firms can gain confidence in CASS compliance.

If your business goes down, failure to segregate clients’ assets could leave clients/consumers seriously out of pocket. But poor systems, oversight and control, combined with a lack of proper documentation, mean that many financial services (FS) firms are falling short of their CASS obligations and leaving their senior management team at risk of severe regulatory sanctions.

Dina Devalia looks at why CASS should be front and centre of the boardroom agenda and how to gain real confidence that your client money safeguards are fit for purpose.

Cross-border border advisory firm Quantuma has appointed Ahmad Chit as managing director in its Middle East practice.

Cross-border border advisory firm Quantuma has appointed Ahmad Chit as managing director in its Middle East practice. Ahmad’s appointment adds further depth to the firm’s growing Investigations and Asset Recovery practice in the region. During the course of his career, Ahmad has led forensic accounting assignments across the MENA Region and held senior roles in the Middle East with major accounting and consulting firms. 

In this latest article from our Disputes, Investigations & Valuations team, Elaine Knopf explains why, when valuing a business, we insist on speaking to the party or parties who run the business and don’t rely solely on historical information in the financial statements.