As we saw today in the House of Commons, David Cameron is quite capable of defending himself over his
ownership of shares in an investment fund before he became Prime
Minister and so this blog is certainly not intending to act as
cheerleader or critic of the points he made. But his circumstances
create a valuable "teaching moment" for this blog and for
those that question why investment funds are traditionally set up
offshore in the first place.
Blairemore Holdings Inc, the entity in which he held shares from
1997 through to 2010, is an investment fund. Originally
incorporated in Panama, it was operated out of the Bahamas and
moved to Ireland in 2010. It invests in global equities and has a
minimum subscription amount of US$100,000. Interestingly, it also
has a mandate ensuring that almost all the fund's income from
its underlying investments should be paid out every year, rather
than stored within the fund indefinitely, resulting in every single
investor in that fund
