Broetje-Automation Group: Global Expansion Through Strategic M&A and Tax Advisory

From the Northwest of Germany, Broetje-Automation Group had become the world's leading expert in specialised production processes in the aviation and aerospace industry, servicing all major aircraft manufacturers around the world. Since the first major acquisition in 2007, Broetje needed to expand globally whilst managing complex tax, legal, and operational requirements across multiple jurisdictions. The company needed to establish presence in the US, UK, France, Russia and China whilst maintaining efficient intra-group cooperation and tax efficiency. Major projects concerned not only the delivery of individual equipment items, but the set-up and commissioning of whole production sites, requiring coordinated advisory services across multiple countries.

HLB member firms from several countries under the lead of HLB Stückmann, Bielefeld, Germany, have helped to successfully acquire local suppliers and distributors, implement efficient distribution vehicles and a tax efficient intra-group cooperation strategy. HLB's approach has involved member firms and lead to direct contacts at local level in a well-coordinated manner. A team of ten professionals located in Bielefeld covers and coordinates the services in the fields of tax compliance, international taxation, transfer pricing, staff secondment, corporate restructuring, M&A and legal services, mainly concerning contractual structuring.

In the UK, Menzies advised Broetje at the GmbH level and with the set-up of a new UK company, coordinating the UK position with HLB Stückmann to ensure that the advice has been understood and consistent in both countries. In the US, Withum Smith+Brown assisted Broetje through two major transitions: moving their US headquarters from Omaha, Nebraska to Buffalo, New York, as well as a change in personnel in the finance & accounting department. They assist Broetje USA with their year-end income tax provision, in addition to handling their US tax compliance filings and helping with Broetje Automation (Germany) regarding prior-year state income tax filings.

In France, the Broetje project started in the summer of 2011 with negotiations conducted together with HLB Stückmann to acquire a majority take in the capital of a French company located in South France. In China, HLB worked together with HLB Stückmann to support Broetje's understanding of the taxes incurred in China for their projects, helped with the Chinese company setup in Shanghai and provided continuous accounting service, tax filing and financial reporting service to Broetje Shanghai on whom they performed both statutory and group audit.

HLB member firms successfully supported Broetje-Automation Group's global expansion across multiple jurisdictions. The intra-disciplinary approach covering accounting, tax advisory and legal services, all coordinated to suit the operative and strategic needs of Broetje-Automation, manifested the success of the mutual cooperation. The strong individual relationships between the responsible client partners in the relevant jurisdictions—Germany, US, UK, Russia, China and Japan—based on years of international cooperation, professional experiences and personal relationships developed at HLB's international conferences, allowed for outstanding performance in a world of international players. Today, Broetje operations include presence in the US, the UK, France, Russia and China with major projects successfully completed across all regions.