Offshore law firm Ogier, advising on the British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Guernsey and Jersey law and providing fiduciary services, announced that it is opening a boutique practice in Luxembourg. By this, Ogier becomes the first offshore law firm with an onshore presence in this country.

Chief executive officer of the Ogier group Nick Kershaw said: “The new office is being driven by client demand, as many of our existing clients currently use or have expressed an interest in using Luxembourg, either standalone or as part of an offshore structure. Having a Luxembourg legal capability will therefore complement our existing suite of services.”

The Luxembourg office will be led by Francois Pfister, supported by Ogier Jersey partner Daniel Richards.

In addition to the new legal outpost, later this year Ogier plans to establish a corporate and fund administration busuiness in Luxembourg. Las

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It’s not uncommon for us to get calls from companies that need business financing but have been declined by banks. Many of this prospects consider their experience of trying to get bank financing to be a sour experience. “They don’t understand me. They have no idea how quickly my business can grow!” they complain. I am going to play devils advocate for a second and say that actually, many people don’t know how banks lend.  And if they understood how banks operated, most of these prospects wouldn’t have even bothered approaching a bank for business financing. Maybe it’s the bank’s fault for not making it clear…. perhaps.

Let’s start by looking at the typical factoring prospect. Many prospects have less than three years of operations, though some have more. A number of them have no hard assets such real estate or equipment either for the company or personally the owners. And Read more…

Credit card suppliers today turn to a variety of ways to drum new customers and providing a credit card with 0% interest rate or a low APR is one way to attract cardholders.

There is no doubt that these credit card offers are very useful. Countless people have to struggle with credit card debt and a zero percent balance transfer credit cards seem a great way to pay part or all of their current debt. This way you have enough time to erase your debts, because an introductory period with low APR is about 6-12 months.

But sometimes taking one of these offers can cost consumers more they save. Read more…

In my first post on mergers, we explored the types of transactions you might consider and the good and bad reasons to consider a business combination.  In this blog, we’ll discuss how to get started in your pursuit of a merger or acquisition partner.

First, your leadership team must agree on the benefits you’re seeking from the combination (see my last post for a potential benefits list).  Ideally, these will be the specific objectives you most want to accomplish from the merger or acquisition or what will be different or better (and how) once the combination is complete.

Then, you’ll develop agreed-upon qualifying criteria to identify your list of potential integration partners.  Initial criteria to define include your potential suitors’ ideal or desired:

• Size – in revenues, employees, locations, and market reach.  If you’ve decided to merge your firm upstream, you’ll be looking for a suitor larger than you.  A merger of equals and acquisitions of smaller practices or individual books of business dictate the appropriate size considerations, too.
• Location(s) – what area do you want or need their main location (or corporate headquarters) to be?  What other locations are you seeking (if applicable)?  Define the geographic profile that you feel will mesh with your firm’s growth plan and reasons for undertaking a transaction.
• Leadership and ownership structure – what type of leadership or ownership structure do you feel will best meet your intention for merging?  For instance, if your firm is seeking a merger as a succession strategy for an aging owner group, you’ll want to seek merger candidates with younger owners and leaders.  If your firm is seeking a smaller, simpler acquisition, you’ll want to seek firms with a smaller number of partners or shareholders.
• Product/service mix – if you’re looking to acquire talent to start up a particular niche or service area, then that will dictate the product/service mix that potential partners must offer to make your target list.  If your strategy is to add more capacity to your current service areas, you’ll want to identify firms whose services virtually mirror your own. 

Then, assign a team member to use your initial criteria to conduct research and identify firms in your chosen geography and of the size, leadership and ownership structure and offering the product/service mix that fit your criteria.  You can find these firms by:

• Conducting web-based research using key words from your initial criteria and then carefully reading web pages, LinkedIn profiles, and other web references to find firms that meet your requirements.
• Letting your trusted referral partners, fellow alliance members, association contacts, consultants, and other key service providers or vendors know of your firm’s intentions and the details of your target profile so that that they can suggest or refer candidates to you.
• Looking at competitors you’ve respected in the past that you feel may meet your initial criteria.
• Using firm lists produced by accounting trade publications or the state society in your target geography to identify potential firms.

These sources will help you develop a first round list of potentials.  Ideally, you’ll gather information about each potential partner by reading their web site, social media sites, filings, association affiliations, and press releases.  Organize this data into a grid where the prospective suitors are placed as columns and the data you garner about each from your research populates the rows – with a row for each of your qualifying criteria and other rows for other pertinent information you may discover in your first-round research (like their mission statement, values, names and number of partners, niches, and more).

Once you have your “potential targets” matrix populated, gather your firm’s M&A team (which may be a small group) to review and discuss each firm.  This process is likely to shed additional anecdotal information on the candidates and may cause you to eliminate or add some based on reputation or other feedback you receive. 

During this meeting, you should agree on who from your firm will serve as the point person to reach out to the remaining potential targets to explore their interest in integrating with your firm.  This should typically be a high level contact on your side (CEO, Managing Partner, or practice leader) reaching to a senior decision maker on their side to meet for a meal and talk about growth strategies and their interest in a potential combination of the type your firm is envisioning. 

With luck, these outreach activities will generate a few interested potentials to begin deeper discussions in earnest.   In my next blog, we’ll discuss qualifying criteria to evaluate as you pursue a serious M&A candidate.  In the meantime, if you have any ideas about identifying a list of M&A pursuit potentials or any other thoughts on the subject of merging, please share them with us.  We’re interested!

As 2011 turns to 2012, active traders at Schwab, TD Ameritrade and thinkorswim have been given a little added holiday cheer.

Launched last February, Charles Schwab’s () active-trading platform, StreetSmart Edge, was updated in mid-December. Kelli Keough, Schwab’s vice president of active trading, claims this upgrade is the most significant in satisfying client requests and enhancing workflow. New are screening tools, momentum monitors, updated charting tools and the ability to link an optionsXpress account into StreetSmart Edge. The downloadable application, featuring streaming charts, news and account data, is available to clients who trade more than 36 times in a 12-month period.

When viewing a price chart for a stock in StreetSmart Edge, you can see small tiles where you have an open position or open order.

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Garrett is one of our most important and prolific contributors on this blog.  I love reading his thoughts because he is a born motivator as well as a highly competent Rule #1 investor and he does a unique job of blending the two.  What follows is Garrett about moving past the JOB and on to financial freedom:

Phil, I just spent two days teaching someone how to leave his JOB at 41 years old. He’s been liberated! He can now work at his JOB because he wants to, not because he has to. SIDE NOTE: A “JOB” is “Just Over Broke.” To me, it means: 1) Getting up 5 days or more a week to do something that isn’t your passion. 2)

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Several items from Michael Jackson‘s estate are up for auction, among them and most controversally, the bed he died in.

Just like most anything you can purchase at an auction, Michael Jackson’s bed comes with a Certificate of Authenticity!

Michael Jackson’s Death Bed COA.

Information source: everythingyoulikeisstupid.com

Nam Tai Electronics, the British Virgin Islands-domiciled company working in the spheres of electronics manufacturing and design, has signed a major customer contract for LCD modules. This agreement had already been mentioned in the press release on BVI company’s financial results for the third quarter of 2011.

Under the terms of the newly signed contract, the company expects to receive firm orders under the contract soon which will support high-volume production starting at the end of December 2011, with shipments beginning in early January.

Discussions with the second major customer to produce LCD module subassemblies for smart phone applications at the company’s Shenzhen site are in progress. The parties currently plan high-volume production of the modules to begin about June 2011.

Most people that come to us looking for factoring do so because they have cash flow problems and need funds to cover operations.  However, factoring can also be used as a tool for growth. And as a tool for growth, factoring offers a number of benefits. Let’s look at an example.

Let’s say a business services company is using factoring to handle it’s operational costs. A new prospect appears and offers them a contract for consulting services. It’s a large and lucrative contract but invoices will be paid in 60 days. Unfortunately, the company does not have enough of its own funds to cover this contract. This is a common situation.

If structured correctly, the company can take on the contract, invoice for the work before payroll is due and then factor the invoice to cover payroll expenses. This enables the company to take on new business leveraging the factoring company’s capital. How Read more…