A look back at the most popular stories on eprivateclient this week...
Monday
HMRC scrutiny of football image rights and sponsorship payments likely to grow after “dual representation” report, according to wealth management and professional services group Evelyn Partners. It was recently reported that English Premier League football clubs had allegedly avoided £470 million of tax since 2015 “by artificially structuring their payments to football agents” with the use of “dual representation” contracts. Matt Hughes and Dominic Arnold, tax partners at Evelyn Partners, argued “this will no doubt increase the scrutiny by HMRC on players, clubs and agents".
While house prices might be cooling, it is not nearly enough to tame the incredible asking prices for the most expensive homes currently available on the market, market analysis by estate agent comparison site GetAgent.co.uk revealed. GetAgent analysed current property stock to find the homes that are currently listed with the highest asking price across each area of the British housing market. The most expensive home available in Britain right now is a five-bed five-bath luxury apartment located at one of London’s most prestigious addresses, One Hyde Park, for £60 million. [Read more]
Tuesday
UK law firm Macfarlanes promoted eight to partner. Alex Jones advises international families, trustees and family offices on a broad range of cross-border structuring, estate planning, trust law and tax issues. Mr Jones was named as an eprivateclient Top 35 Under 35 in 2022. Chloë Edworthy specialises in international arbitration and cross-border litigation for corporates, financial institutions and high net worth individuals. Tania Barnes is a real estate specialist experienced in all aspects of property-driven transactions with a particular focus on complex mixed-use regeneration and deep knowledge of the living sector. [Read more]
UK law firm Farrer & Co made up three of its solicitors to partner. John Davies from the firm’s family team, Barbara Beasley in its commercial property department and Alice Yandle (employment) will all become partners from 1 May 2023. In addition, the firm also announced that Jane Randell (IP and commercial) and Lindsay Cunningham (residential real estate) will become senior counsel from 1 May.
Wednesday
Law firm Penningtons Manches Cooper made two partner promotions, Amy Fox and James Lewis. Ms Fox - who specialises in family law, in particular complex financial disputes involving high value, multiple jurisdictional assets - joined the firm as an associate in 2008. Mr Lewis, who joined the firm from Howard Kennedy in 2017, provides high net worth and ultra-high net worth clients with a broad range of private client advice. His work involves estate planning and the preparation of wills and trusts, often with an international dimension.
Global investor services group IQ-EQ appointed Matt Okolita as regional chief executive of the Americas, effective 12 April 2023. Mr Okolita previously held the role of global head of outsourced business services and in this capacity has worked closely with his predecessor Mark Fordyce for a number of years. As part of this planned leadership transition, Mr Okolita will take over the role from Mr Fordyce who will remain as non-executive chairman of IQ-EQ Americas.
Thursday
Paris Saint-Germain footballer Achraf Hakimi walked away from a French divorce court without having to pay a penny to his former wife. According to media reports, Mr Hakimi’s wife Hiba Abouk would have expected to receive a share of her husband’s estimated $70 million fortune. However, having appealed to a French court to ask for a divorce and half her ex’s wealth, Ms Abouk discovered that the Moroccan footballer had no property or money in the bank. This is because Mr Hakimi's wealth and assets, even 80 percent of his salary, are registered under his mother's name.
Independent fund, corporate and private wealth services provider Suntera Global recognised 43 employees across its global network of offices as part of its latest round of group-wide promotions. The promotions included a number of senior level roles. In Suntera’s head office in Jersey, Victoria Dingle and Jade Fellowes were all promoted to associate directors, as was Amanda Galm in the US office and Kathryn Wilson and Will Rowlands in the Isle of Man office. [Read more]
Friday
International law firm Stephenson Harwood promoted eleven lawyers to its partnership - including two from the firm’s employment, pensions and private wealth group - effective from 1 May 2023. The two new employment, pensions and private wealth partners were Dubai-based Emily Aryeetey and Chris Edwards-Earl in the firm’s London office. At the same time Ezio Dal Maso became a partner in the firm's finance group. Priya Grigoriadis was named a partner in the firm's fraud and asset recovery team. Also added to the firm’s partnership were Ngowari Adikibi (corporate), Saif Almobideen (marine and international trade), Alexander Chadwick (real estate and projects), Alexandre Koenig (restructuring and insolvency (R&I)), Cathal Leigh-Doyle (marine and international trade), Chris Manning (private equity) and Jeffrey Tanner (finance).
Fiduciary and family office services provider Ocorian appointed Tania Mohacs as chief commercial officer. Ms Mohacs, who joined Ocorian in 2019, is based in London and was previously head of regulatory, legal and compliance at the firm. Prior to that, she was a director at TMF Group and had more than 15 years' experience in the trust, funds and corporate services sector gained from senior management roles focused on driving growth and transformational change.