ExCo Gives Nuance OK?
After fiveyears of legal manoeuvrings and rul-ings by the Trade and BusinessLicenses Board, it has been reported that the Executive Councilof the Cayman Islands Government (ExCo) may have approved thedeal involving several million dollars for one of the world'slargest duty-free operations Nuance Global Traders to pur-chase a 51 percent majority control in Island CompaniesLtd, which operates some 17 Duty Free Stores locally.
Cayman Net News understands that this approvalcomes following the appeal which was filed with ExCo several monthsago, for the sale to proceed. Nuance's majority own-ership ofthe local Island Companies, a tourism and duty free chain of stores,was denied by the then Trade and Licence Board which was enforcinga regulation specifying that in the absence of special permissionby ExCo, non-Caymanian companies cannot have more than 40 percent shares in local businesses.
An expatriate company can however get thatmajority ownership if it chose to enter a business deal througha joint-ven-ture arrangement with a local company, settling forthe 40 percent, or by mak-ing an application for a Local CompaniesControl License (LCCL) if it wants to control more than 40 percentof the business' shares.
This reported recent approval by ExCo willno doubt be a blow to the locally owned Kirk Freeport Operations,the pioneers in Duty free operations with several locations inthe downtown area, and another major store at the Strand on WestBay Road. Kirk Freeport was pre-pared to become a share-holderof Island Compa-nies after Nuance was first turned down by theTrade and Licence Board.
The local owners offered to purchase ofthe remaining 11 per cent shares, above the 40 per-cent margin,but they were turned down.
A Director of Island Companies, Mr RenardMoxam, when contacted for comment on this latest development givingthe green light to Nuance, told Cayman Net News:
"As we do not have any-thing in handat this time, the Directors of Island Companies Limited are notin a position to com-ment".
The Island Compa-nies chain of stores hasbeen part of the Cayman landscape for a number of years. It isunclear exactly when the actual deal to change ownership willgo through.