Jersey’s Relationship with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

More than 50 Jersey firms are currently supporting Saudi clients with their financial arrangements and strategies.

With representatives from most of these firms including many female practitioners visiting the Kingdom regularly.

Jersey firms also have very strong links to financial services professionals in central London, including vital connections with private client lawyers.

When it comes to selecting an IFC, Saudi investors focus on a jurisdiction’s stability, reputation and regulatory environment. Tax efficiency and asset protection are also vital considerations. Ticking all of these boxes, Jersey is well placed to support family offices, ultra-high-net-worth individuals and businesses in the Kingdom.

Jersey is the clear choice for real estate structuring, not just for property in London and other cities in the UK, but also for property in North America and Western Europe.

We work with Saudi families and businesses acquiring:

• Residential property, structured as buy-to-let or as part of a buy-to-let portfolio
• Commercial real estate, including residential towers, student housing, office towers, hotels, warehouses and real estate for ‘last mile’ logistics

Particularly appealing is the fact that it’s often easier to sell commercial property structured in Jersey, which widens the pool of potential buyers. This is largely thanks to Jersey’s reputation as a leading and trusted IFC.

Jersey Private Funds are also extremely attractive for investments from the Kingdom, especially club investments. This structuring option offers institutional and professional investors a more streamlined and fast-track regime, with tailored ongoing regulatory requirements. Funds for up to 50 investors can be established in as little as 48 hours.

Our International Savings Plans are tax-approved schemes for multinational employers. These forward-thinking plans are more flexible than traditional pensions, allowing a pay-out to employees before the standard minimum pension age, either on termination of employment or as a result of a major life-changing event such as redundancy, ill health or divorce. They are ideal schemes for end-of-service benefit payments.

It’s our first-class reputation and unparalleled levels of expertise that set us apart from other IFCs. Families and businesses in the Kingdom are choosing Jersey for redomiciling or restructuring their international structures. This ‘flight to quality’ is most often seen for structures established in the Caribbean, such as special purpose vehicles (SPVs), and also for structures set up in the 1980s and 1990s in Panama and Liechtenstein, which tend to own assets in the United States.

Jersey is the perfect place to locate a family office, thanks to the extent of our expertise, our favourable time zone and our innovative, forward-thinking services. We have many well-established single and multi-family offices that provide world-class support across a wide range of functions, from wealth management and succession planning to property management and marine and aviation asset management.

Jersey private trust companies (PTCs) are very popular among Saudi families looking to preserve and protect wealth for future generations. Recognising the importance of control and family participation, PTCs allow family members or trusted advisers to become board members alongside professional service providers.

We’re a leading Islamic finance centre. Unlike other jurisdictions, we don’t have to amend laws to accommodate Shari’a-compliant structures and contracts, and we have extensive experience in this area. Many Sukuk structures, for example, have been established in Jersey.