Legal Services Corporate

We advise a broad range of clients from multinational companies to private equity and venture funds, family offices and private companies on a variety of corporate issues, including:

• company formations
• general company administration and shareholder meetings
• corporate reorganisations
• joint venture set up
• regulatory compliance, including the adoption of best corporate governance practices
• share capital, including share rights; conversion rights; declarations of dividends; redemption, buyback and transfer of shares or other securities; and maintenance of share capital
• directors' duties, conflicts of interest and transactions and arrangements with directors, including directors indemnification
• shareholder rights, including unfair prejudice, derivative actions and class right

The Maples Group has substantial experience in the energy sphere, advising some of the best known publicly traded companies in the industry for many years.  We routinely work on the largest and most complex transactions involving energy companies, utilising our technical strength and depth of experience to provide the highest quality advice.  Our clients include international and private oil companies, lenders, bond arrangers, project sponsors and investors.

Through some of our offices worldwide, we advise in all sectors of the energy industry including:

• a wide variety of debt, equity and other financings
• listing of British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Irish, Jersey and Luxembourg companies on all major international stock exchanges
• mergers, acquisitions and restructurings
• joint venture set up
• project acquisitions and asset disposals
• public company meeting support and corporate governance advice
• dispute resolution
• general corporate and regulatory support to large multinationals

Our equity capital markets work covers listing services and IPOs of British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Irish, Jersey and Luxembourg companies on NASDAQ, NYSE, LSE, ISE, HKSE, CSX, TWSE, TISE, TSX, TSXV AIM and IEX, as well as secondary issues (including rights issues, open offers and placings), depository issues and ongoing advice to issuers (including in the event of substantial acquisitions or takeovers).

Working, where relevant, alongside international counsel, we advise issuers, underwriters, sponsors, lead managers and selling and acquiring shareholders.

The Maples Group provides a broad range of services to international businesses establishing or carrying on business in or through the jurisdictions in which we practice law.

When required, we provide a full range of local corporate, tax, employment, immigration, intellectual property, technology & telecoms, real estate and other legal advisory services specifically tailored to international businesses.

Our local teams work extensively with global clients and regularly advise, in conjunction with international law firms, on a variety of local legal requirements.

We routinely work on the largest and most complex public and private mergers and acquisitions transactions involving companies domiciled in the British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Ireland, Jersey and Luxembourg, both domestically and cross-border.

Utilising the technical strength and depth of experience of our lawyers across our global offices, our Mergers & Acquisition team draws, where necessary, upon the expertise of our specialist commercial lawyers including finance, anti-trust, employment, financial services, intellectual property, real estate, technology & telecoms, trusts and tax.

We have been a leading adviser to the private equity industry for many years and our Private Equity teams advising on British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Irish, Jersey and Luxembourg law work alongside international counsel on the formation, structuring and financing of private equity funds.

In addition, we advise on all types of private equity transactions from growth and venture investing, management and leveraged buyouts, take privates, secondary buyouts and exits by way of trade sale or IPO.

Our focus is to find solutions to the issues that clients face in situations of financial difficulty.  We achieve this with a multi-disciplinary approach, with our finance and insolvency lawyers working alongside our corporate lawyers to advise on the most complex corporate restructurings and insolvencies involving British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Irish, Jersey and Luxembourg companies.

Our Restructuring team is uniquely placed to work directly with international counsel and leading insolvency advisers, providing expert legal advice to both debtors and creditors on company restructurings.

We advise on capital and corporate restructurings, formal insolvencies (both contentious and non-contentious), examinerships and receiverships, distressed investments, institutional lender side work, cap table alignment, debt for equity swaps, 'pre-pack' transactions and general contingency planning.

Our Irish team is agile enough to address the needs of innovation driven enterprises (IDEs) and their investors which are very prevalent in the Irish market. We also have the scale and sophistication to advise on the largest restructuring transactions involving Irish headquartered multinationals and large Irish corporate borrowers.

Our mandates extend to advising all constituencies of stakeholders, including:

• Trading and holding companies facing liquidity issues
• Banks
• Alternate lending platforms
• Institutional investors (including private equity, venture capital and hedge funds)
• Insolvency practitioners
• Bondholder committees
• Trade creditors

We also work extensively with management teams in relation to management led rescues and equity incentive arrangements in a restructuring context.

Technology

The Maples Group has developed particular expertise with depth of technical knowledge and experience to help guide you through the issues that you are likely to encounter in a world of fast-paced and rapidly changing technology.

Through some of our offices worldwide, our teams advise suppliers and users, including ISPs, retailers, media companies and website and application developers on a variety of services in relation to:

• Cloud Computing
• Data Protection and Privacy
• E-commerce and the Internet
• Outsourcing and Managed Services
• Procurement and Sale of Systems and Services    

Telecommunications

The telecoms industry is an evolving market, with a variety of operators across a full spectrum of technologies. With an established client base that includes mobile and broadband service providers and broadcasters, we have significant experience with:

• Consumer Issues
• Network Build and Roll Out
• Outsourcing of Telecoms Services
• Regulation and Licensing
• Terms and Conditions of Supply    

General Contracts

Within our Technology & Telecoms group, we also have extensive experience in the preparation, review, negotiation and enforcement of a number of commercial contracts, including:

• Advertising, Branding and Sponsorship
• Agency and Distribution
• Confidentiality and Non-Disclosure Franchising
• Logistics
• Outsourcing and Facilities Agreements
• Procurement and Sales
• Standard Terms and Conditions of Sale
• Service Legal Agreements