Guernsey Limited Partnerships

Guernsey has a modern limited partnership law which offers a number of benefits over, for example, the equivalent legislation in the UK and is widely used in a broad range of circumstances.

In simple terms, a limited partnership is a partnership between one or more general partners responsible for managing the partnership, and one or more limited partners, who are investors in the partnership with no involvement in its management. In Guernsey the limited partnership is commonly use to facilitate Private Equity transactions. Closed‑ended funds structured as limited partnerships are primarily used by professional and institutional investors, rather than retail investors, and can be innovative and complex. However there is no restriction within Guernsey legislation regarding the type of business that can be conducted through a limited partnership making it an extremely flexible and popular structure.

There is no limit on the number of limited partners that a limited partnership can have and both general and limited partners can be corporate entities.

Unlike in the UK there is no requirement for disclosure of the identification of the limited partners with only the name and address of the general partner available as a matter of public record. Information on the limited partners and their contributions need be available only to other partners.

A Guernsey limited partnership has no separate legal personality. However it can elect to have a separate legal personality – in a situation for example where it wished to be one individual investor in a fund.

We have wide experience in managing Guernsey limited partnerships both within our fiduciary and fund administration divisions and work closely with clients’ other professional advisers to establish the most appropriate structure for their individual circumstances.