From tax advice, such as the concept of participation exemption, to helping corporates decide whether setting up a CVC unit is in their best interests, PwC is strengthening the professionalism of corporate venturing across multiple sectors and markets.
In 2014 the advisory firm brought in CVC professional Mark Muth, formerly of Unilever Ventures, as a director to its London-based corporate finance team, to advise European corporate venturing units on a range of services.
Muth has experienced corporate venturing on the inside track at Unilever, and prior to that at General Electric’s investment subsidiary, GE Ventures, so he understands where units need the most advice and service consistency when it comes to personnel turnover. He joined his colleague John Riggs in the US, who is also targeting corporate venturing.
“At PwC we can get involved in the front end of corporate venture capital establishment,” says Muth. “We can help those companies that do not have a corporate venture capital business think through their strategy for the business – what are the objectives, what are they doing now in innovation and what are their other innovation initiatives – and help them decide if they want to start up a corporate venture capital unit.”
Several corporates have gone about their venture capital investments in an ad hoc manner without devising a concrete strategy first, according to Muth.
He believes it is therefore necessary to set firm strategic objectives and to align the unit with staffing, as well as the legal, regulatory and tax elements with which PwC is familiar.
“The market is very healthy,” says Muth. “There is clearly a lot of growth, an impression which is based on the number of inquiries we are getting both in our London office and in America.”
Likewise, the advisory firm is working with Asian and European companies to set up in the US. Both trends area sign that the CVC segment is largely becoming a global investment segment that needs market-specific transactional and tax advice.
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