Designed, then built
Architecture with counsel first, execution second. The structure is decided on paper, where changing it is free.
International Expansion
Market entry for companies
expanding into jurisdictions
they have never operated in.
The right entity, banking, regulatory setup, and substance from day
one. Designed and built by one firm, in the market you are entering.
By introduction. In confidence.
Most market entries are improvised: an entity from a formation agent, a bank
account six weeks late, a tax surprise in year two. Day one is buildable.
We assess the corridor, design the architecture, and build the entry
itself: incorporation, banking, registrations, substance, and the first
hires, delivered operational rather than theoretical.
The mandate suits profitable companies entering their first foreign
market, groups adding a regional base, and anyone already abroad
on a structure that was improvised and now shows it.
The entry takes several forms.
The first foreign market
The company's first step abroad, built so the second one is easier instead of harder.
The regional base
A headquarters jurisdiction serving several
markets: the hub chosen for treaties, talent, and
time zones, not habit.
Follow the customer
A contract that requires local presence, delivered
on the customer's deadline without inheriting a decade of bad structure.
The operational footprint
Manufacturing, logistics, or a licensed activity, where the regulatory perimeter decides everything and must be mapped
first.
The tidy-up
Already abroad, badly. The improvised entry restructured into what it should have been, with minimal disruption to trading.
Improvised, or built.
The same market, entered two ways.
The consequences are qualitative here and priced precisely in the design phase.
The improvised entry
The built entry
The entity
The improvised entry
Whatever the formation agent sells; re-papered in year two
The built entry
Fit for the ownership, the activity, and the eventual exit
Banking
The improvised entry
Opened after arrival; six weeks of nothing moving
The built entry
Open before the first invoice needs sending
Regulatory
The improvised entry
Discovered by letter
The built entry
Mapped before entry; licences sequenced into the build
Tax posture
The improvised entry
Inherited by accident
The built entry
Designed with counsel, documented, defensible
Substance
The improvised entry
Challenged later
The built entry
Real from day one: people, premises, decisions
Unwinding an improvised entry costs more than building a proper one, and it
costs it during trading. The design phase exists to make this table's left
column impossible.
Common corridors: into the UAE / Singapore / the UK / the US / Australia / the EU
The process.
Six phases from corridor to operational.
Most entries run three to six months from decision to trading, longer where licensing leads.
I
Screening
The conversation first, under NDA if you prefer. The company, the market, the driver, and whether the entry survives arithmetic. If the market is wrong or the moment is, we say so.
II
The corridor
The market and the route assessed on facts: demand, regulation, tax treaties, talent, and the honest cost of being there. TMF Group's Global Business Complexity Index ranks 81 jurisdictions across 292 indicators;
complexity is measurable, and it is priced into every corridor we assess.
III
The architecture
Entity type, holding line, tax posture, and regulatory perimeter designed with counsel before anything is formed. The structure is the strategy, on paper first.
IV
The build
Incorporation, banking, registrations, licences, premises. Delivered in sequence so nothing waits on anything it did not have to.
V
The team
The first hires, the employment architecture, and the payroll and benefits machinery behind them. People are the substance
regulators and customers actually test.
VI
Operational day one
Trading, banked, registered, staffed, and compliant. The entry handed over as an operating company, with the map of obligations that keeps it one.
The expensive month is the one where the contract is signed and the entity cannot yet invoice. The sequence exists so that month never happens.
An entry that stands on day one.
The entity is the tabletop. The legs are what keep it standing.
The new market entity
trading, invoicing, employing, from day one
Banking
open before
the first invoice
Tax posture
designed with counsel,
documented
Regulatory
mapped, licensed,
sequenced
Substance
people, premises,
decisions
Remove any leg and the table stands until someone leans on it.
Someone always leans on it.
The improvised entry builds the tabletop and hopes. The built entry stands on all four legs before the first customer, regulator, or tax authority tests any of them.
Why Companies Engage Us
One firm in the market
Entity, banking, regulatory, and team delivered by one point of contact, in the jurisdiction you are entering, not from a call centre near it.
Banking that opens
Accounts sequenced with the incorporation, not after it. The commonest failure of market entry, removed.
The regulatory perimeter
Licences, registrations, and the obligations calendar mapped before entry. Nothing arrives by surprise letter.
Cross-border, natively
Nine offices across the corridors companies actually use. The market you are entering is usually one we are already in.
Substance, real
Hires, premises, and decision-making that stand up to the people who check.
Substance is built, not asserted.
What we act on.
The firm acts for profitable companies making deliberate entries:
The first foreign market, the regional base, the operational
footprint, or the restructure of an entry done badly.
Typically founder-held or family-held, typically entering a corridor where the firm already operates. We coordinate counsel in each jurisdiction; nothing on this page is tax or legal advice.
Terms are set out plainly in the Engagement Agreement before any work begins.
Asked before most mandates.
Which entity type do we need?
The one that fits the ownership, the activity, and the eventual exit, which is a design answer, not a menu answer. The architecture phase settles it with counsel before anything is formed.
How long until we can trade?
Three to six months for most corridors, longer where licensing
leads. The build is sequenced so banking, registration, and
premises land together rather than in a queue.
Do we need local directors?
Some jurisdictions require them; most reward genuine substance either way. What your corridor demands is a fact, established in the corridor phase, not a surprise in year two.
Should we hire directly or through an employer of record?
An employer of record buys speed and defers structure; direct employment builds substance. Many entries start with one and graduate to the other, on a date chosen in the design.
What does the tax setup actually decide?
Where profits are taxed, how money moves home, and what the group looks like to every authority watching. It is designed once, with counsel, and documented so it survives scrutiny.
What does it cost?
The commercial terms are set out plainly in the Engagement Agreement before any work begins, sized to the corridor and the build. There are no surprises in our paperwork. The whole mandate exists so there are none in the market either.
No public references.
The firm does not name clients, counterparties, or terms.
Not in marketing, not in conversation, not after the fact. The
companies best placed to vouch for the work are the reason we
will not ask them to. If discretion matters before your
competitors know you are coming, it should matter to the firm that builds your entry.
Adjacent to this mandate.
Day one, designed.
Every mandate begins with a conversation. Outline the company
and the market in confidence. If the entry survives arithmetic, we
will show you the build. If it does not, we will say that too. Request an Introduction, in confidence. No obligation. An NDA is available before any detail is shared.