referrals
Clive Tomes & Co
IEC membership can be of significant benefit to all of us as members. When I first joined, I thought that the main benefit would be an increase in work through referred business. Over the years we have not in fact received much work, however, I have come to realise that there are so many other, probably more significant, benefits of membership, for example:
• International exposure - the mere fact of having an international profile is of huge benefit when trying to attract local clients.
• International support - I have lost count of the number of times we have been able to refer clients to other IEC members for advice and support in other countries. Not only does this provide the client service we want to provide, but it secures such clients for the long term.
• Technical Wealth - just think of the wealth of technical expertise and support we all have access to through our membership!
Don't get me wrong, referrals are important, and we have received through our membership, for example, a couple of offshore trust structures through the excellent advice by other members to their clients and their subsequent referral to us, but the potential additional business is only one small part of the overall benefits we all receive from IEC.
Mr Clive TOMES.
RETO PIANTA . INTERRECA
Dear Colleagues. It is always important to distinguish between material and immaterial benefits. Referrals mean financial revenue and we all are very satisfied when this happens. We can pay salaries or invoices, we can distribute dividends etc. Nevertheless we can also be very happy if we are able to suggest to our customers our excellent international contacts in many countries of the world or if we can give or receive international professional advice.
It generates fantastic goodwill, and undoubtedly provides important added value. You join the world and you are part of the world simply by dialling a phone number or sending an email. IEC gives also other tremendous
advantages: for example meeting the members personally once a year, subscribing to IBDF at a lower cost, exchanging ideas or informing other members during the year about new laws etc. These benefits are in addition to possible referrals.
Do you make new friends just with the purpose of making revenues? IEC helps you to make new friends, to speak to excellent professionals, to help clients, to enrich your professional knowhow, to be present in many countries, to visit new cities. Finally IEC should also help to increase the work and the mandates. Referrals are not so important as we get rich in other ways.
M. Reto Pianta
IEC Referral
To: Joaquim Camilo & Associado,
Portugal Client: A Belgian professional association Client
requirement: To recover the VAT supported on a conference of the association held in Portugal.
Legal basis: Under VAT rules of territoriality (transposed to Portugal VAT code under article 6) the conference is subject to VAT in the country where held (Portugal).
Methodology:
a) Register the association with the Company Registrar as a non-resident entity without activity in Portugal (for purposes of profits tax). Documentation presented included a signed copy of the association’s statutes as lodged with the Belgium authorities, identification of a company officer with powers to represent the association, request letter for attribution of company number.
b) Register the association for VAT in Portugal at the central Lisbon tax office designated for non-resident persons. Documentation presented included the registration document issued by the Company Registrar, proof of Belgium VAT registration, declaration of start of activity (VAT only), signature by legal representative. Difficulty encountered: A delay arose since the tax office personnel did not know the correct format for introducing a Belgian VAT number to their system.
c) Issue invoices to participants under Portugal VAT number at rates of VAT applicable in Portugal.
d) Submit quarterly VAT returns.
e) De-register the association for VAT at the end of the conference.
Submitted by: Geoffrey Fletcher, gfletcher@jcamilo-sroc.pt on 15th August 2007
JOAQUIM CAMILO & ASSOCIADO SROC Rua Odette de Saint-Maurice, 3L, Piso -1,Esc. B Lisbon Portugal Tel. : (351) 217 542 610 Fax : (351) 217 542 629 gfletcher@jcamilo-sroc.pt.
IEC REFERRAL: Van Huffelen & Meenink
“Van Huffelen & Meenink “ counsels a international transaction of big style
In May this year the transaction between The Sheridan Group and Euradius, of which the shares of Euradius have been transferred to Sheridan, was closed. “Van Huffelen & Meenink ” was the consultant of Euradius at this transaction.
Euradius is a venture with activities in the graphic industry. Euradius has participations in the Netherlands, Germany and Singapore. The main customers of Euradius are globally operating scientific and literary publishers. The turnover of the group amounts to approximately € 135 mio.
The Sheridan Group is an industrial graphic venture in the North-East of the USA. Sheridan has six operating companies and produces a turnover of more than $ 375 mio.
Sheridan is financed by two venture capital societies (VC's) from the USA, which are also the largest shareholders.
The product/market combinations of Sheridan and Euradius match very well with each other. Both are active on the co called STM market (Scientific, Technical, Medical) of journals and books.
One of the innovative elements of Euradius is the powerful development of "digital printing on demand" (POD) facility.
With POD books can be produced in a single edition and journals can be made in small editions. At the traditional techniques only medium and larger editions are economically justified.
The reason for the operation lies also in a strategic perspective of creating adequate critical mass on a global size to serve publishers with several global concepts: in the USA, Europe and the Far East.
VC's are searching for such a scope too, to create such position where the venture can successfully be brought in due course to the market of IPO and or secondary buy outs.
Our counselling concerned the advice of the shareholders of Euradius, as well as attracting financing resources on the Dutch/German market for the purchaser. To direct the process adequately, we have incorporated a large number of parties in our team. We have engaged through the IEC network our legal, financial and tax experts from New York, the Netherlands and Germany.
From the US side our members Funaro & Co assisted in due diligence, accounting and tax advice. Our former network partner Dorsey & Whitney assisted in due diligence and contractual services. In Germany Pianka & Partners assisted in due diligence and accountancy and tax services.
It was our task to accompany the financial side of the operation, to direct all "external" specialists and take the lead in the negotiations team.
The structure of the transaction required that a due diligence research were carried out reciprocally.
The experience is that American parties carry out an extremely detailed and extensive due diligence, that picture was more than confirmed at this operation. The due diligence research was facilitated by means of a so-called digital dataroom, which was installed by our IT manager.
All pieces in scanned form are made digitally available to the authorised persons. This works very efficient, certainly at operations where parties from several countries are involved.
With this operation the first real world player in the graphical industry has been created, including a prominent and innovative position in the field of "printing on demand".
Together with our IEC partners we were in the occasion to assist in the realization of this success.
