Direct Investment in Europe and Made-in-Italy – challenges and opportunities
欧州への直接投資：メイド・イン・イタリア投資への挑戦と機会
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Nowadays, a great opportunity for foreign investors is represented by investing in European companies, especially Italian ones: it is possible to find out healthy and solid companies, with strong know how, brand awareness and important market shares at lower prices and conditions than usual, because of their current performances, mostly linked to financial crisis that has been involving European markets during the last years.
Moreover, many companies – born during the economical boom in the 70s – are now experiencing phase of “lack” of generational handover: for the entrepreneur, the time has come to leave his company to his heirs, but unfortunately he has no one to whom leave it and able to take it! That’s why he can find the possibility to sell it to someone proposing a good plan of development and renewal very interesting.
That’s the main reason why investing in such companies, with international growth business plan and supported by brand new and fresh financing, represents a unique chance for the time being.
However, this kind of investments is linked to some challenges: first of all, working in a deeply settled and regulated market (let’s think about work legislation, taxation, work safety, environmental impact, etc.) is not easy and immediate.
The second big challenge deals with the comprehension of the local culture. We are talking about understanding that what leads people to excellence in performance can be really different in Eastern cultures in comparison with Western cultures, being sure to hold and maintain key people as a fundamental part in the company organization. Cultural differences can be crucial also at the negotiation, during which vendor’s emotional needs and values sometimes can be added to economical, quantitative and financial aspects. This is exactly the case in point when the object of the negotiation is a family business, strongly integrated in its area and district, to which the entrepreneur gives value, especially talking about the employees’ protection and their job preservation.
The third challenge, not less important than the others, concerns governance and control – even remotely – of the company performance, by simple and effective KPIs, often not part of culture of the acquired company, but that are able to permit a remote control, a perfect timing in terms of management choices and the possibility to start up quick adjustments.
In addition, the financial European markets entry carried by Asian and Middle East investors could occasionally be not so simple because of restrictions concerning sometimes legislation, other times banking system due to financial flows coming from Countries with an uncertain reputation. It is therefore necessary to find out the right structure and the most suitable European market entry solution. Tax efficiency, discretion and confidentiality could be crucial for the success of an investment!
Being assisted and accompanied in this kind of investment by a qualified support, aware of all the above mentioned aspects and able to integrate all its skills, means to maximize the effectiveness of the investment. The target goals are to identify “the right” company to invest in, to negotiate the most advantageous conditions and to take control of the new investment straight away with no loss of effectiveness during the governance turnover from the previous ownership to the new one.
Malta: a perfect entry to Europe.
Using the specific instrument of the Maltese Private Foundation (MPF) could make investments in Europe possible, in a very efficient and effective way. The benefits of such an instrument are the following:
- Maintaining a high level of confidentiality for the investor;
- Protecting the invested assets from third-parties threats (the MPF enables to keep those specific investments completely separated from other investments and it can be structured into segregated cells, each of them constituting a distinct patrimony from other assets and liabilities of the foundation itself or of other cells of the same foundation);
- Identifying and planning the beneficiaries of the investment into details;
- Tax planning (no tax on income dividends, 5% on trading and commissioning, no withholding tax on outcome dividends or interests, no tax on capital gains);
- Taking advantage from an effective and quick banking system;
- Acting through an efficient and white-listed European resident structure.
This article is provided courtesy of Andrea Raimondi Partner at R&P Consulting. For further information please contact us at
intray@zetland.biz.
最近、外国人投資家からの欧州企業、特にイタリア企業への投資が増加しています。この数年、一部の欧州諸国は財政危機にさらされており、そのため欧州株式市場が低迷しています。その低迷した欧州株式市場において、企業業績に比べて株価が割安な企業、例えば知的財産がしっかりしていて、ブランド力があり、市場で大きなシェアを占める優良企業に投資家の眼が集まっています。
現在、1970年代の好景気に誕生した多くの企業は経営陣の世代交代問題に直面しています。自社を次世代へ委ねる時期にきているにも関わらず上手く後継者が見つからない創業者にとっては会社を売却しリニューアルして発展させる方向を望む選択もあるわけです。
外国人投資家たちはこのような世代交代を狙う企業への投資、国際的成長力を秘め、かつ新たに資金調達ができそうな企業への投資への機会を狙っています。
しかしこのような投資の問題点は、投資先市場が成熟しているために規制が厳しく（労働法、税制、職場の安全基準、環境基準など）参入は容易ではなく時間も要します。
２番目のチャレンジは現地文化や風習です。優秀な人材資源の確保は会社経営にとって不可欠ですが、西洋と東洋文化において社員のパフォーマンス向上を図る方法はかなり異なります。また、文化の違いは交渉の場でも鍵となります。交渉相手のニーズを文化感情的面から理解することは、交渉の場において経済的考慮、量的、財政面からの考慮に加えて大切なことです。交渉相手が地元に深く根付いたファミリービジネスの長である場合はなおさらで、特に労働者の権利と雇用の確保は重要なポイントとなります。
3番目のチャレンジは買収企業の管理です。単純な企業業績の評価はKPI（重要業績評価指数）を使い遠隔管理が可能です。これにより経営陣の選出時期を見計らうことが遠隔からでも可能になります。
加えて、アジアや中近東の投資家たちの欧州金融市場への参入は法的制約や資金の入出取引先国の評判から銀行取引において制約を受け困難を極める場合もあります。そこで事前に欧州市場参入に最も適したストラクチャーを組むことは必要不可欠です。租税効率、守秘義務などの考慮も投資の成功条件として重要になります。
このような投資には、上記の問題点をカバーし最大限の投資効果をもたらすことのできる専門家へのご相談が不可欠です。ゴールは「正しい投資企業先」を見つけ、相手との交渉で有利な条件を獲得し、経営陣交代をもっとも効率よく行うことになります。
マルタ：欧州市場へのベストな参入方法
効率的な欧州投資の参入手法として、マルタ・プライベートファンデーション(MPF、マルタ一般財団)を使う方法があります。利点は、
- 投資家が高い匿名性を得ることができる
- 投資資産を第3者の脅威から守ることができる。マルタ一般財団を使うことで財団に入れた投資資産に対し資産分離が可能
- 投資利益の受益者を明確にできる
- 税金対策（受取配当金は非課税、取引手数料にかかる税率は５％、支払利息や配当金もかかる源泉所得税もなく、譲渡益も非課税）
- 効率の良い銀行システムの利用
- 欧州（マルタ）居住ストラクチャーとして評判・効率共にホワイトリスト扱いを受けることができる
この記事はAndrea Raimondi Partner at R&P Consultingによる提供です。詳しくは
intray@zetland.bizまで。
