Joint ventures represent an opportunity to accelerate the growth curve of a business by combining the assets, know how and people of two organisations with a common goal, whether that is servicing a new market, delivery to a particular customer or developing a new product.
There are a variety of ways to structure any joint venture arrangement – a new separate entity may be set up to conduct business (whether a company or a form of legal partnership) or you may work under a collaboration agreement or a contractual joint venture, under the terms of which you agree with your JV partner to work under collaboration agreement.
It is key that going into a joint venture you look to protect your assets and understand precisely and with certainty what your obligations, role and returns will be. It is also important to recognise that things may not always proceed as expected – disputes arise and key decisions as to funding, staffing and investment may come up.
We have significant experience of putting in place JV arrangements for new companies, collaboration agreements between businesses and of identifying the risks and mechanisms to manage risks. We work closely with our commercial lawyers in setting up and documenting these relationships. We can help you to:
- structure joint ventures through new companies or partnerships with multiple stakeholders
- enter into collaborations and strategic alliances
- employment or secondment arrangements to protect staff
We have worked on a variety of joint venture structures across a wide range of sectors and industries, recent examples include:
- a high profile consumer brand in relation to a collaboration with a competitor
- various property holding structures
- the special purpose vehicles to hold and build renewable energy projects
