Cayman authorities to wind up its Hemisphere Management (Cayman) Ltd. joint venture.

Hemisphere president Mr. Chris Wetherhill said yesterday that he has experienced difficulty obtaining day to day operational details about new clients generated by his Cayman partner, who owns 50 percent of the firm.

Disclosure to the Bermuda half is essential, especially now that the parent company is publicly-held, he said.

"Our plans for expansion have been somewhat frustrated by a dispute with our 50 percent partner regarding the direction and management of that joint venture,'' Mr. Wetherhill said in the company's annual report.

"Extensive negotiations to sever our relationship, which I consider to be in the best interests of the company, have proved wholly unsuccessful.

"Consequently the company has been left with no alternative but to present a petition to Grand Court of the Cayman Islands for the winding up of Hemisphere Management (Cayman) Ltd. on the grounds that it is just and equitable,'' he said.

The petition will be heard later this year, he said.

Cayman government has been kept fully informed of Hemisphere's intentions but Cayman partner Mr. Lewis Rowe is resisting the break up, said Mr. Wetherhill.

If the company is dissolved, an existing wholly-owned subsidiary of Hemisphere would take over management of about half its 220 clients, which include private holding companies and investment companies as well as trading companies.

Hemisphere Management (Cayman) Ltd. was formed in 1988 with Mr. Rowe, a co-director of a Bermuda public company which was a client of Hemisphere Management Ltd.

Hemisphere Group Ltd. recently reported profit for the year ended June 30 rose 20 percent to $1,010,000 on revenue of $4.2 million.

Hemisphere Management Ltd., now a subsidiary of Hemisphere Group Ltd., was originally founded in 1981.