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Carey Olsen has worked with the States of Guernsey, and the governments of the other Crown Dependencies, to offer advice on loan guarantee schemes set up in light of the corona virus pandemic.
Each of the governments of Guernsey, Isle of Man and Jersey have agreed to provide financial support to enable further backing for businesses as the situation continues.
The schemes will be broadly aligned, although each government will guarantee loans only for its own local businesses. They will be operated initially by a number of banks across Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man, including Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, RBSI/NatWest/Isle of Man Bank, Santander and Conister.
Guarantees will be provided to the participating banks of 80% of lending, providing in aggregate £140 million of new lending across the Crown Dependencies. The schemes are designed to provide increased access to liquidity for viable businesses that may suffer solvency issues as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Carey Olsen teams advised the States of Guernsey, the Government of Jersey and the Isle of Man Government, with the assistance of their Attorney General's Chambers, on the establishment of the schemes including agreeing the heads of terms, drafting the scheme documentation and its launch.
Jersey Partner Robin Smith led the pan-jurisdictional team, assisted by Senior Associate Stephen Gie and Associate Holly Brown. The Guernsey corporate team was led by Partner Andrew Boyce, assisted by Senior Associate Vaishali Gupta and Associate Rachel de la Haye. Carey Olsen provided the advice at concessionary rates. Appleby provided advice to the banks throughout.
Mr Smith said: "We have seen that a key strategy for many governments around the world is to relieve the liquidity pressures on individuals and businesses whilst social distancing measures are temporarily in place so we were very pleased to assist the Governments of the Crown Dependencies in the set-up and launch of their loan guarantee schemes. It is important for local business and industry groups to support our local governments and we are happy to have played our part."
Pictured top: Andrew Boyce of Carey Olsen's Guernsey office.
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