“LEGALYS MAURITIUS, formerly G&P LEGAL® is a foreign law firm duly registered with the Office of the Ministry of Justice of Mauritius.
duly registered with the Office of the Minister of Justice of Mauritius and empowered to give advice in French and Mauritian law in accordance with the Mauritius Legal Practitioners Act 1984.
Established in Mauritius since 2016 and lead by Olivier GUERIN, Barrister-at-Law at the Court of Appeal of PARIS and registered as a lawyer with the Office of the Ministry of Justice, LEGALYS MAURITIUS advises and assists its clients, directly or via its local partners, in the following areas.
A key speciality of LEGALYS MAURITIUS, formerly G&P LEGAL®, for over 10 years, LEGALYS MAURITIUS provides companies and individuals with legal and tax advice on cross-border transactions, from advice on setting up offshore structures (global business licence, authorised company), through to the restructuring of companies and groups of companies, the acquisition or takeover of companies, and mergers and partial transfers of assets and/or securities.
With its dual expertise in Mauritian and French law, LEGALYS MAURITIUS, formerly G&P LEGAL®, has a unique ability to optimise tax structuring between France and Mauritius, both in terms of corporate tax and the personal taxation of directors (tax residence issues), through a combined mastery of Mauritian (Income Tax Act), French (Code Général des Impôts) and cross-border (France-Mauritius tax treaty and OECD rules) tax regulations.
In addition to the specific relationship between France and Mauritius, LEGALYS MAURITIUS, formerly G&P LEGAL®, advises its clients more generally on the choice of the best legal structure for investments in Mauritius or for carrying out activities in Africa from Mauritius, by virtue of the numerous double tax treaties signed by Mauritius.
LEGALYS MAURITIUS, formerly G&P LEGAL®, offers the following services in this area:
- Creation of domestic companies, trusts and foundations with drafting of articles of association (in French or English) with provision of legal and accounting secretarial services at the best rates;
- Drafting shareholders’ agreements, counter-letters and other documents between shareholders;
- Protection of trademarks and patents of the domestic company in Mauritius at the Institute of Intellectual Protection (IPO) in PORT LOUIS;
- Striking off, dissolution, restoration of companies struck off the PORT LOUIS Trade and Companies Register (Registrar).
- Corporate governance, including management of and assistance with pre-litigation disputes between partners;
- Advice and assistance in connection with the acquisition or sale of a company or trust, including its preliminary evaluation, the carrying out of various fiscal, social and legal audits, the evaluation of the company, the drafting of various pre-agreements (confidentiality agreements, letters of intent, discussions) and agreements (acquisition memorandum), as well as asset and liability guarantees, in addition to the tax optimisation of the sale in the case of cross-border transactions.
In addition to drafting the usual commercial contracts in this field (sales contract, franchise, distribution, loan, etc.), LEGALYS MAURITIUS, formerly G&P LEGAL®, assists its clients in setting up complex contractual operations (industrial and commercial partnership contracts) in compliance with the private and public legislation of the Republic of Mauritius.
As contract law is essentially governed by the Mauritian Civil Code and therefore by French legal principles, LEGALYS MAURITIUS, formerly G&P LEGAL®, thanks to the dual expertise in French and Mauritian law of its partners, is able to provide the best service to its clients, for both drafting and legal disputes that may arise during the performance or termination of contracts.
Following the recent implementation of a new employment legislation in Mauritius (Workers’ Rights Act 2019, recently amended by Act No12 of 2023 published on 20 July 2023) LEGALYS MAURITIUS, formerly G&P LEGAL®, has developed a specific expertise in employment law advice for employers and senior executives:
- Drafting of employment contracts applied to the business sector;
Social audits and transfers of employment contracts in the context of partial or total business transfers; - Individual redundancies, with assistance in Mauritius before the Labour Office;
- Collective redundancies and severance agreements, in the context of companies in difficulty but also in the context of companies undergoing restructuring (French and Mauritian collective procedures).
- Social audit with regard to compliance with the standards imposed in this area: health and safety, concealed work, bargaining and illegal lending of labour, discrimination and harassment.
- Setting up social and economic committees, trade union rights”.