What are the current themes driving change in the Dutch market?
Legislative changes, in part driven by both political and public debate around the roles of corporate and financial service providers, have drastically changed the Dutch corporate and financial service industry in recent years.
Whilst traditionally, tax was often seen as one of the key motivators for structuring or locating companies in the Netherlands, that is no longer the case. We have seen that predominantly tax-motivated structures are being liquidated, restructured or migrated, and are making way for both corporate and fund services clients that require proactive and hands-on operational and administrative support when operating their business in the Dutch, European and global markets. The complexity of doing business abroad combined with an increase in regulatory compliance has resulted in an ongoing trend to outsource business administration services.
At the same time, the Netherlands remains one of the most attractive markets through which to enter Europe. On an ongoing basis we’ve seen the Netherlands benefit as a jurisdiction from Brexit, with companies that used to operate from the UK into the rest of the European market now selecting the Netherlands as the preferred location to set-up and register in the EU for a variety of reasons. Together with companies from the UK, we continue to see significant investments from North America and Asia into the Netherlands as a popular and preferred location for doing business.
This, combined with a robust return of economic activity in 2021 following the pandemic shock of the previous year, means that the Netherlands continues to rank high globally for foreign direct investment. Its strong reputation for a highly skilled and multilingual workforce, geographic benefits of being Europe’s leading logistics hub, as well as regulation and structures which value sustainability, technology and innovation, have all encouraged continued investment.
Following the changes in our industry, Apex Group has evolved its Corporate Solutions business in the Netherlands. With a focus on proactive and hands-on corporate support, we enable clients to successfully enter the Dutch and European market while they expand global business operations.