Before we speak
A review of your structure, your obligations and your governance. It starts with a questionnaire, at the foot of this page.
THE OBSERVATION
A trading company accumulates gaps
Between what is declared, what is executed and what is filed, the gap widens slowly and quietly. A share transfer never entered in the register. A directorship changed without filing. An asset still held in a founder’s name. Minutes that exist somewhere, with no one quite sure where.
Nothing happens. The business runs, revenue grows, and these gaps cost nothing — until the day everything is asked for at once. An investor coming in. An acquirer at the door. An inspection.
On that day, the gap stops being an administrative detail.
WHO THIS IS FOR
Incorporated and trading companies
This review is for you if:
- your company is incorporated and genuinely trading;
- you have a first closed financial year and revenue;
- and at least one of the following: more than one entity, shareholders or investors in your capital, or a transaction expected within twelve months.
It is not for you if:
- your project is starting and the company does not yet exist;
- the structure is simple, single-shareholder, with nothing in view;
- you are looking to validate a business model or raise funds.
In those cases there is nothing to examine and the conversation would run empty. I would rather write it here than have you find out in the meeting.
SCOPE
Four areas, in this order
Structure — what actually exists
Entity perimeter, ownership chain down to natural persons, consistency between the register, the deeds and the public filing. Unconverted instruments. Where assets and intellectual property actually sit.
Maintain — what comes back
Filing obligations, statutory registers, tax deadlines, standing conditions. Nothing here is ever settled once and for all.
See clearly — where the numbers come from
Who produces the information, with which tool, in how long, and the gap between what you look at and what a shareholder expects.
Protect — the governance instruments
Shareholders’ agreement, reserved matters, board composition and conduct, minutes, transfer provisions.
THE DELIVERABLE
A statement of position, not a summary note
Every finding carries five elements: what is observed, on what basis — your statement or a document examined, referenced and dated —, how often the matter recurs, who carries it today, and what happens if it is not held.
Alongside it: the dated calendar of your next twenty-four months — every deadline, by entity, with who holds it and what it triggers.
This document will be wrong within ninety days. Every entry into your capital, every change of directorship, every closing makes it stale. That is the nature of the exercise, and it is stated in the document itself.
SCOPE OF ENGAGEMENT
What this review does not do
It offers no view on the merits of an investment, on a valuation, on the terms of a fundraising, or on the choice of a financial partner. Those questions belong to authorised professionals, and I do not operate in that field.
The review covers the mechanics: what is in place, what is missing, what recurs, and who holds it.
ACCESS
By application
The questionnaire below takes a few minutes. It is there to understand your situation before any conversation — and to spare you one that would lead nowhere.
Three possible answers: a meeting, a fuller review, or a reasoned decline. In all three cases you get a written answer within two working days.
Show us what you have. We will tell you whether we can work together.