Legal Advisory

Due Diligence is an hot topic. Financial Due Diligence, Risk, Legal Due Diligence, Operational Due Diligence. Many key steps of the investment process need to be managed in order to get a good result. In particular on emerging markets like Africa, where experts are rarer and informations sometimes less reliable, or not available, you need to dig deeper, and use creative combinations of sources of informations. 

Many good business ideas start from scratch, in a garage or restaurant, many people say. Actually many good ideas also fail, because of wrong structuring. In an interconnected world, where you act cross border and run the business at high speed, you need a master in structuring, that keep up the pace. As a Group, family, institutional or individual, the key is to structure the business in a way it creates value and helps you to keep the value over time. Structure your group, business, investments funds in a smart and consistent way. This is my motto.

The basics of your business are managed by corporate agreements. The basic structures and governance is described in shareholder agreements and other corporate contracts. In my past years i fixed many contracts which were done without considering important aspects of corporate law and over the years became risks for shareholders and stakeholders. 

Licensing a business is key in many regulated areas. For several reasons. Its the first formal step you take, when you set up a business which requires a licence. And it`an an important step. The governance model, control model is part of this step and a central point of your business model. Auditors and Authorities will look into it. My take: make it so simple as possible, so efficient as possible, so that your clients will survive the outcome and use your services.

I set up governance models of any kind, top-down or bottom-up. I negotiated existing governance models with Authorities, supervisors, auditors and clients, all over the world. I set up banking governance models, security dealers governance models and asset managers governance models with focus on delegation, reporting, controls, and efficient operations. Only with a clean and efficient model your company will not sink in paper and keep the motivation of your clients and employees at the highest levels. This requires also a prediction process on regulatory and legal changes, inpacting the future of your business.

Operating a business requires attitude and integrity. Nevertheless you will encounter challenges, and the risk that you will take the wrong decision is high. In addition, in many countries the perception on gifts or similar is different. Good anti-corruption mechanisms, contractual or at governance level are key to a longstanding business. Reputation is part of any success story.