Bart Waterloos, Partner at VGD SLOVAKIA
When you arrive to a new country to start your busi-ness or expand into new markets, you have a thousand questions. It is with excitement and respect that one makes such a step.
COUNTRY DESKS
But where to start? Usually, you would begin by asking for some feedback from the advisors in your home country, but they are sitting far away and most of the time lack the connection to the local culture and habits. If they are part of a larger network, like the Nexia network, there is a big chance that they have a local partner who is qualified and experienced in dealing with foreign investors. Indeed, that is one of the factors you cannot underestimate. Not only the knowledge of a foreign language is required (often I meet with clients who cannot communicate directly with their advisors!), but also the ability to understand what the entrepreneur wants to say to you. This is exactly what we are trying to do via Country Desk, a concierge service. In such a case, you wouldn’t be surprised when a client instructs you to pay out an interim dividend from the profit of the current year. In Slovakia this is not possible, but the local laws of the investor could well allow it. If you are aware of this fact, we can search together for solutions on how to figure out what the investor wants.
