This article will focus on setting up a Joint Venture in Singapore, including types of a Joint Venture, the advantages and disadvantages, and the procedure to set it up. Let’s keep reading the article!

Overview of a Joint Venture

A joint venture is a business entity created by two or more parties and generally characterized by shared ownership, returns, and governance. In other words, it involves two or more businesses merging their resources and expertise to achieve a particular goal. However, the risks and rewards of the enterprise are also shared.

The reasons behind creating a joint venture, such as business expansion, development of new products or moving into new markets, especially overseas markets. Additionally, when the business may have strong potential for growth and you may have innovative ideas and products. Thus, forming a joint venture can give you, such as more resources, greater capacity, increased technical expertise, and access to established markets and distribution channels.

Forming a joint venture is a major decision, you will need big preparations on which you can set up a joint venture, the advantages and disadvantages, and also what to look for in a joint venture partner.

The Types of a Joint Venture

There are 3 types of a joint venture for foreigners, and how you set it up, it all depends on what you are trying to achieve.

1. Cooperate with another business in a limited and specific way.

If you have a small business with an exciting new product, and you might want to sell it through a larger company’s distribution network, then you and your partner could agree to a contract setting out the terms and conditions of how this would work.

2. Separate joint venture business

It is an alternative for a new company to handle a particular contract. A joint venture company like this can be a very flexible option. The partners each own shares in the company and agree on how it should be managed.

3. Business partnership

In some circumstances, other options may work better than a business corporation. Hence, you could form a business partnership, and you might even decide to completely merge your two businesses.

Deciding what is the best type of joint venture is the necessary thing, and you should consider whether you wanna be involved in managing it or not. You should also think about what might happen in the future, if the venture goes wrong, and how much risk you are prepared to accept. 

Moreover, the way you set up your joint venture can affect how you run it and how much profits are shared and taxed. It also will affect your liability if the venture goes wrong. Hence, you need a clear legal agreement setting out how the joint venture will work and how much income will be shared.

The Advantages and Disadvantages of a Joint Venture

All businesses of any size can use joint ventures to strengthen the relationships or to collaborate on short-term projects. A joint venture can also be very flexible and is popular with businesses in the transport and travel industries that operate in different countries.

However, a successful joint venture can give advantages, such as:

• Access to new markets and distribution networks.
• Increased capacity.
• Sharing of risks and costs with a partner.
• Access to greater resources, including specialised staff, technology, and finance.

Partnering with another business can be complex, and it takes time plus effort to build the right relationship. The problems are likely to arise, if:

• The objectives of the venture are not 100% clear and communicated to everyone involved.
• The partners have different objectives for the joint venture.
• There is an imbalance in levels of expertise, investment or assets brought into the venture by the different partners.
• Different cultures and management styles can result in poor integration and cooperation.
• The partners do not provide sufficient leadership and support in the early stages.

These might be the disadvantages of a joint venture, but it somehow can be overcome because having success in a joint venture depends on thorough research and analysis of aims and objectives.

Set Up a Joint Venture in Singapore

Setting up a joint venture is quite easy, if you know the process. These are 3 ways to set up a joint venture in Singapore:

1. Choose your joint venture partner

You need to choose a joint venture partner to create a joint venture. You need to have a well-defined business objective in mind that will allow you to look for and identify a co-venturer that complements your business and help you achieve your goals. Once you have identified a company that is a good match with your business goals, you will spend time focusing on whether your two companies are a good fit.

You also need to look for a company with a good market presence in your business area, and then you can start to jointly sell, promote, and distribute your products. 

2. Decide on the type of joint venture

There are 3 ways you can set up your joint venture arrangement with another party. Firstly, you need to cooperate with another business, then separate your joint venture business, and lastly is with the business partnership. The detailed information of the types is mentioned above.

3. Set out the terms and conditions in a written agreement. 

This will prevent any misunderstandings once the joint venture is up and running. The written agreement should cover all of these:

• The structure of the joint venture, whether it will be a separate business in its own right
• The objectives of the joint venture
• The financial contributions you will each make
• Whether you will transfer any assets or employees to the joint venture
• Ownership of intellectual property created b the joint venture
• Management and control, for example, respective responsibilities and processes to be followed
• How liabilities, profits, and losses are shared
• How any disputes between the partners will be resolved
• An exit strategy, when your partnering comes to an end.

You may also need other agreements, such as a confidentiality agreement to protect any commercial secrets you disclose. These are the ways to set up a joint venture in Singapore that you may find useful if you want to do this anytime soon!

In conclusion, all the information about joint ventures in Singapore is necessary, if you start thinking to set it up, because it is a good way to gain access to new markets, increase market power, and as well as sharing resources. On top of that, preparation is the key and you need to pay attention to that. If you are still unsure, you can contact us below! Viettonkin will always be ready to assist you!