Representatives of four companies and the Department for Enterprise have returned from a whistlestop week-long trip to South Africa dubbed the ’Isle of Man Journey.’

Peregrine Corporate Services Limited organised three events across the vast country alongside Maitland Group, Capital International Group and Optimus Group.

They were at locations including Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town, to present together the ’Isle of Man Journey’ to a South African audience.

Each event encompassed a variety of informative presentations, closing with an interactive question and answer panel session which was chaired by Nick Preskey from the Department for Enterprise.

The formal presentations were given by Basil Bielich (Peregrine), Colin Bird (Maitland, Isle of Man), Anthea Stephens (Maitland, South Africa), Nick Preskey (DFE), Dave Thomas (Optimus) and David Noon (Capital, South Africa).

They covered a mixture of subjects which included:

Relocating to the Isle of Man,

planning your offshore journey,

The technical aspects of issues that individuals and companies need to consider,

Inward investment to the island,

How to find the ideal platform provider when investing offshore and

The benefits of Isle of Man pensions.

All three sessions were well-received with delegates choosing to stay to network with the speakers and the other delegates to explore in more detail, the subjects that were discussed earlier that morning.

’It was very rewarding to travel out to South Africa as a group and organise the events,’ said Basil. ’It has been enjoyable working with the other companies and the DFE, and I’d like to thank them for all their efforts in making our trip a success.

’We travel to South Africa quite regularly so we chose to work with Maitland, Capital and Optimus because they all have a presence in the country which is important to us.

’The delegates who attended were very interested in hearing about the Isle of Man; we promoted both inward and outward investment as we felt that was essential to help further our ties and working relationships.

’We are hoping to organise similar events in the future and continue to increase the Isle of Man presence in South Africa.’

Nick Preskey said: ’I’d like to thank Peregrine, Maitland, Capital and Optimus for inviting me along to be part of the Isle of Man Roadshow. There is a thriving South African community here in the island which is an important point to highlight when you are meeting people in South Africa.

’We met some interesting individuals who wanted to learn more about island life and what it’s like here on the Isle of Man. I’m feeling positive about the outcome of our trip.’