BBD is an independent international advisory firm headquartered in Manama, Bahrain servicing medium and large sized companies with international operations. Our clients are typically high net worth individuals, privately held corporate groups or pre-IPO situations where the operations of the group are of a volume that is large enough to establish a significant presence in global markets but not large enough to develop an in-house fully staffed international division necessary to stay on top of the multitude of dynamic changes that influence business structures in foreign markets.

The focus of our dedicated team is on helping our clients to:

a) “De-offshorize” their corporate structures and investments as part of our compliance services.

As part of these services, we audit and review existing corporate structures with offshore elements, restructure and, if necessary, implement the new solutions in compliance with the rapidly changing tax regulations. As a result of the rapid change in tax legislation, the criminalization of aggressive tax planning strategies and the increasing pressure exercised by revenue authorities globally, international tax planning is more complex now than it used to be.

For example, a letter-box company incorporated in a low-tax jurisdiction might be seen a short term and cost-efficient solution but may prove very costly in the long-term, not only from a financial, but also reputational perspective. The days of banking secrecy and in-transparent structures are numbered and automatic information exchange about to become the new global standard.

In the light of these developments, it is crucial for every company and ultimately the business owners to review their existing structure to become compliant since time is of essence. Our main focus is on helping our clients to establish genuine economic operations in various jurisdictions around the world, a necessity for those who would like to benefit from tax and other incentives offered by a certain jurisdiction. We help our clients to align the business processes with their tax efficient global corporate structures that operate with minimum tax and legal risk in today’s increasingly complex international tax compliance environment.

Our authenticity has been established by a book named “Offshore Apocalypse, The Collapse Of The Tax Haven Industry – What Does The Future Hold?”. The book is written by the managing partner of the company under the pseudonym “An Oracle.”

www.offshoreapocalypse.info/

“At the end of 2015, automatic information exchange should be the new global standard”
(G20, St. Petersburg, September 2013)

b) Develop an effective IP strategy and help to commercialize an invention

You have an invention and you wonder, “What should I do now?”

You will need help managing your invention. True inventors and many entrepreneurs thrive on the unknown, live for the excitement of the discovery, the chaos which surrounds exploration. But in order for an invention to be successful commercially, the chaos of invention must be transformed to the order of the business world. The design must be fixed. Dependable markets must be found and secured. A financial model must be developed, and must have enough basis in historical events to satisfy a skeptical investor. Even if you don’t expect to use an investor, the financial plan should still be developed with a investor’s skepticism as the standard. Without that standard, the risk/reward ratio of the project will be out of balance. If the ratio of risk to reward is too high, then there is no logical reason to proceed with the project.

As much as the inventor’s love of adventure, love of the unknown, love of exploration, drive the inventor to invent, that same love of adventure can cloud the inventor’s judgment, the inventor’s ability to achieve the required balance between the chaos of adventure and the order of the business world.

This is why it is important that the inventor secures to himself a small group of trusted advisors, namely the management team, who can, first, do things the inventor does not do well and, second, be objective regarding the realistic prospects for success of the invention.