The Supreme Court of Bermuda has granted an order winding up Afiniti Ltd, the island-domiciled artificial intelligence firm.

A petition for the winding up of the company was presented to the court by Afiniti Ltd on September 18.

Rhys Williams, of law firm Conyers, represented the company on the hearing of the petition yesterday before Puisne Judge Andrew Martin.

Mr Williams told the court: “As of now, the company has no revenue-producing assets, simply a finite amount of cash.”

He said the company had $389,000 but that was necessary to cover the estimated costs of the winding up and the dissolution of the company.

Mr Williams added: “I submit the company is clearly unable to pay its debts.

“We have an insolvent company and an asset-less company.”

Mr Williams noted that there had been no opposition from creditors to the winding up petition.

Mr Justice Martin made the winding-up order in the terms prayed.

Under the terms of the order, the joint provisional liquidators — Michael Morrison and Charles Thresh of Teneo (Bermuda) Ltd, who were appointed on September 19 for restructuring purposes — will remain in office and now have unlimited powers.

The date by which the JPLs must hold the first meeting of creditors and contributories has been extended until June 16, 2025.

Last week, the company announced that it had completed a recapitalisation transaction with Afiniti’s secured lenders, led by Vista Credit Partners.

The transaction was completed following court approvals in Bermuda and in a Chapter 15 proceeding in the United States.

In October 2020, The Royal Gazette reported that Afiniti was moving 90 of its staff to the island under the Government’s one-year digital nomad residential certificate scheme.

At the time, Jason Hayward, the Minister of Economy and Labour, said that Afiniti International Holdings, headquartered in Bermuda, would also take on ten Bermudian staff and planned to build up its permanent presence on the island.

In January 2021, The Royal Gazette reported that Afiniti had an ambition to increase its presence to 1,000 staff on the island within five years.

Later that year, Zia Chishti, Afiniti’s founder, quit the firm after he was accused of a sex assault. He denied the allegations.

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