Simon Turner: “Mauritius is more advantageous over Jersey for operations in Africa”

The Mauritius office of the Salamanca Group is one of its three pillars along with Jersey and Switzerland comprising its trust and fiduciary services. Its Managing Director for the Southern Africa Office elaborates on how Mauritius compares with Jersey as a global business jurisdiction.

BUSINESSMAG.Can you give us an overview of Salamanca Group and its activities?

The Salamanca Group was set up in London in 2012. Our office in Cape Town is in charge of the development of the group in sub-Saharan Africa. We acquired our trust and fiduciary business in January this year, which concerns three jurisdictions, namely Mauritius, Switzerland in the form of Geneva and Jersey.

The trust business sits within one of the four service lines that we offer. They are investment and advisory, corporate risk services, business Intelligence and investigations and fourth, our private office services, which provide high net worth individuals with wealth management services. Part of our strategic move to Cape Town was fuelled by the idea of working closely with our office to deliver a range of services that are very much focused on the African continent.

BUSINESSMAG.What is the contribution of the Mauritian activities to the group’s business?

From a commercial perspective, the Mauritian business is a key component to our trust and fiduciary offering. Those three jurisdictions – Mauritius, Switzerland and Jersey – work closely together to develop a range of private and corporate clients to which we provide a range of trust-related services.

Mauritius brings a significant contribution to the trust business as a whole and is a key component. We see further opportunity in terms of growth here and look at Mauritius as a strategic part of corporate and individual investment into Africa.

The phrase ‘gateway into Africa’ is employed by a lot of people and we believe that this jurisdiction is a critical component for investment into Africa. This is well represented by the huge number of management companies that are present here. Mauritius is a solid, well regulated environment to operate from. We are building a corporate book of South African clients who are utilizing Mauritius as headquarter or holding company base for their investments into Africa. We hope to administer quite a range of corporate investment into the continent from here.

BUSINESSMAG.How do you compare the Mauritian jurisdiction to Jersey, where the group is also present?

It is much sunnier here (laughs). I think both are seen as very solid and stable offshore jurisdictions, which is very important in this day and age, especially after the global financial crisis. Mauritius from what I observe has a significant base of skills and expertise at a range of different levels which compete very well with Jersey. There is a pricing differential between the two jurisdictions in trust and corporate services whereby Mauritius is able to offer services on a more competitive basis. This is a very good thing in my opinion.

BUSINESSMAG.How do Mauritius and Jersey compare in terms of tax regime?

Mauritius is perceived as far more advantageous over Jersey for corporates and institutions operating in Africa owing to its network of Double Tax Avoidance Agreements and Investment Protection and Promotion Agreements.

Also, we utilize our Jersey and Mauritian offices in different ways. The Jersey office is more focused on high and ultra-high net worth of clients from the UK and Europe whereas Mauritius is a little bit more focused on South African clients and international corporates. So the models for these two are slightly different but for the right reasons.

We are undertaking an East African initiative right now, which means that we are targeting Kenya and Tanzania as opportunities from a geographic point of view. We are most likely to set up an office in Nairobi during the next twelve to eighteen months. We will also be focusing on Mozambique where we will primarily be helping them in assisting oil and gas clients.