Business Brokerage

Licensing agreements negotiate the terms and conditions under which a party can use a property owned by another part. Although such properties could be real, personal and intellectual properties, licensing agreements are mostly used for intellectual properties, which in this case are intangible goods, such as patents and trademarks of commercial entities. These agreements define the parties involved and the scope of intellectual property to be licensed.

An international licensing agreement allows foreign firms to, exclusively or non-exclusively, trade or manufacture a proprietor’s product for a fixed term in a defined market. In this agreement, the licensor’s earning could take the form of one-time payment, technical fees, and royalty payments, often calculated as a percentage of the sales.

Licensing is another important strategy employed by companies to gain market access and entry in other jurisdictions. It is a flexible work agreement that can be customized to accommodate the needs and interests of contracting parties.

Atlancific is a facilitator for international licensing agreements between foreign entities and counterparties, especially in Africa.

A franchise is one type of licensing that allows a party, in this case, the franchisee, to gain access to a business’s, otherwise called the franchisor’s, proprietary knowledge, processes, and trademarks, in order to enable the party to sell a product or provide a service under the franchisor’s name.

To maintain the franchise, the franchisee often pays the franchisor an initial start-up and annual licensing fees. Franchising agreements, in comparison to outright licensing, appear longer and the franchisor offers broader package of rights and resources, which may come in forms of equipment, managerial systems, operational manual, initial trainings, site approval and all other support necessary for the franchise to run its business, in the same manner it is done by the franchisor.

Furthermore, while licensing agreements centre on intellectual property, trade secrets and others, franchising agreement is limited to the use of trademark and the operating know-how of the franchisor.

Atlancific is an International Franchise Broker. We have identified franchising, as a veritable market access/entry mode, which allows for simultaneous expansion of franchisors into different regions of the emerging markets of Africa. As a result, we are constantly seeking partnership with entities and business that wishes to use Atlancific platform to extend their businesses in Africa, using the franchising mode.

Unlike mergers, all acquisition involves one firm purchasing another or an economic asset. By acquisitions, companies seek economies of scale, efficiency, and enhanced market visibility. Acquisition has become a popular mode of entering foreign markets, especially due to its quick access and considering that it affords companies opportunity of achieving greater market power and competitive advantage.

In the emerging markets of Africa, it can also be employed to achieve strategic backward integration by larger multinational corporations that are dependent on resources and raw materials from Africa. Some of the sectors of interest requiring acquisition, for development, by foreign interest are agriculture, forestry, mining and energy, including oil and gas.

Atlancific acts as a facilitator and broker in these sectors. Contact our business brokerage desk for more information.

A joint venture busine3ss arrangement allows two or more parties to agree to pool their resources for the purpose of accomplishing a specific task, project or business activity in this arrangement, costs, profits and losses associated with the joint venture are shared among the parties in the joint venture. As a result, a joint venture agreement is entered into by the affected parties. This agreement stipulates the rights and obligations of the parties.

Joint venture is an important vehicle for market entry, risk sharing, technology sharing or transfer and joint product or service development and delivery. It can also aid economies of scale and is a good alternative to merger. Similarly, it enables foreign partners to reasonably manage political risks occasioned in the course of their operations overseas.

Choosing a partner for joint venture can be a challenging task. This is because of the difficulty in identifying partners that have the same general goal and understanding required for that kind of collaboration.

Some of the sectors of interest in need of joint ventures in Africa between local firms and foreign interests are agriculture, forestry, mining and energy, including oil and gas.