After Birth

• Posted by jbehrendt on September 8, 2009
• 2 comments

Sitting on my desk in Istanbul and watching the clouds above the Bosphorus, it seems I have to realize that summer starts to fade. Now it is more than one week that I returned from the sunny South of Turkey, punished for a seemingly eternal holiday by mountains of work on my table. Last week I mad... [More]

Mission Accomplished

• Posted by jbehrendt on August 31, 2009
• 2 comments

The last weeks I spent relaxing in my nice summer house close to the beaches of the Datca Peninsula. The only interruption to continous sunbathing, swimming, eating and drinking was the still ongoing restructuring project in Germany. As you know from my last post, we had finished all documentation... [More]

The Oracle Speaks

• Posted by jbehrendt on July 26, 2009
• 2 comments

Finally, the request for a binding advice from the tax authorities on the treatment of hidden reserves was answered. One week ago, a high-level meeting between representatives from different tax authorities in the German states affected met with the head of taxation at customer side, and with the ... [More]

Post-Closing and Migration Concerns

• Posted by jbehrendt on July 17, 2009
• 1 comments

The last two weeks we had to deal with some resistance to our project coming from an unexpected corner. The managers being responsible for the post-closing and migration, in which all systems and processes would need to be adopted to the new structure, raised concerns if the organization would be ... [More]

Worker's Rights

• Posted by jbehrendt on July 5, 2009
• 3 comments

Some of you may be aware of the extensive rights employees enjoy in Germany. These rights do not only apply to their individual rights as specified in their working contract, and in collective labour agreements between unions and employer's associations, but cover a range of rights regarding w... [More]

Investor's Interests

• Posted by jbehrendt on June 29, 2009
• 3 comments

The last weeks passed pretty fast. After having informed the supervisory board about the intended carve-outs, the project office is bombed with requests for reviewing certain carve-out documents, with answering special questions the project team never thought about, and with requests for additiona... [More]

The Pressure Increases

• Posted by jbehrendt on June 11, 2009
• 3 comments

You remember from my last posting that both the board and the supervisory board approved the project to go ahead, and to bring it to the final decision stage, which in this case means both a formal approval by several supervisory boards, and by general assembly meetings of both companies planning ... [More]

The Train Starts Moving

• Posted by jbehrendt on May 20, 2009
• 13 comments

You have read that last week was decision time, that the board gave permission to continue with the project, to inform the participants of the relevant institutions about the project, and about the need to approve the changes we are suggesting. Today, only one week after the board meeting, the rel... [More]

Decision Time

• Posted by jbehrendt on May 14, 2009
• 5 comments

The long-expected board meeting for approving the detailed carve-out concept took place this week. Results of more than one year of work were compressed into a short presentation of 50 slides, to be presented in 2 hours by eight members of the project team – but even this compressed version ... [More]

Company Valuation

• Posted by jbehrendt on May 11, 2009
• 11 comments

Last week the long-expected company valuation results were presented by the audit company thqt was commissioned with it. Although the intended transactions will be recorded at book value for accounting and especially for tax purposes in order to avoid the disclosure and taxation of hidden reserves... [More]