How a resident director protects a foreign owner's investment

Context

A technology group from the DACH region is opening a Serbian subsidiary. Goal: 25 engineers in 18 months. The plan was for the CFO from head office to run the company remotely, alongside a local accountant.

What went wrong

In the first three months:

• Employment contracts drafted from an EU template — not aligned with the Serbian Labour Act.
• Benefits (stock options) treated as in the parent jurisdiction — with no tax analysis for Serbia.
• The bank required a locally authorised person to be present for every larger payment.

Our intervention

We were appointed as legal representative. In the first 30 days:

1. Review of employment contracts and benefits.
2. Tax analysis of the stock option scheme and a proposal for a compliant version.
3. Banking procedures redesigned so that remote management is no longer a bottleneck.

What the owner got

• A corporate structure ready for scaling.
• Protection from retroactive tax and employment-law risks.
• An operating model where head office makes decisions and Serbia executes them without delay.