From first look to financial close
A route, not an introduction.
Investment facilitation is the work of converting an intention to invest into an entity that is registered, funded, licensed and operating. It covers the assessment that establishes whether the opportunity is real, the design of the vehicle through which capital enters, the sequencing of the approvals that vehicle will need, support through negotiation and documentation, and the mechanics of registration, funding and eventual repatriation.
The client is rarely short of capital or conviction. What is missing is the route — the specific set of decisions, taken in the specific order, that moves money from a board resolution in one jurisdiction into a functioning enterprise in another without the structure having to be rebuilt halfway through.
This capability draws continuously on the other three. Nothing can be sequenced without regulatory engagement, nothing is heard without institutional engagement, and in most sectors nothing proceeds without a local counterparty. Facilitation is the discipline that keeps those three moving in the same direction toward a single date.
The expensive failure is not a bad asset. It is a good asset entered through the wrong structure.
By the time any of these surface, the investment is committed, a partner is in place and the cost of unwinding is a multiple of the cost of having got it right. Facilitation exists to move that discovery forward — to the assessment, where it is cheap.
Six pieces of work, in sequence.
- 01
Opportunity and market assessment
We establish whether what has been presented is real before any structuring work begins. That means testing demand, offtake and pricing against observable conditions rather than a sponsor projection, confirming that the licence, land or asset at the centre of the proposition is genuinely available, and reading the policy direction behind the sector. The output states plainly what supports the opportunity, what undermines it, and what would have to be true for it to proceed.
- 02
Entry structure design
We set out the realistic entry vehicles — wholly owned subsidiary, joint venture company, branch or liaison arrangement, economic zone entity, concession company — and work through the consequences of each for foreign ownership limits, registration with the investment authority, capitalisation, tax treatment, governance rights and the route by which returns eventually leave the country. This is done as an options paper with a recommendation, not a single answer, because the trade-offs belong to the client.
- 03
Approvals sequencing
Every consent the chosen structure will require is inventoried against the authority responsible for it, the prerequisites that must be satisfied first, and the period for which it remains valid once granted. From that inventory we build a critical path: which approvals gate funding, which gate construction or operation, and which can be pursued in parallel. Where the sequence cannot support the timetable, the timetable changes here rather than after commitment.
- 04
Counterparty identification and diligence
Where a local partner, sponsor or operator is required, we define what that party must actually supply — land, an existing licence, operating capability, capital, market access — and search against that definition. Candidates are screened for beneficial ownership, sanctions exposure, adverse media, litigation history and politically exposed connections before an introduction is made, not after terms have been discussed.
- 05
Negotiation and documentation support
We work alongside the client’s legal, tax and technical advisers rather than in place of them, holding the negotiation calendar, keeping the conditions precedent list current, and making sure the commercial position agreed in a meeting is the position that reaches the document. On joint ventures we press hardest on reserved matters, funding obligations, deadlock and exit, because those are the clauses the relationship is tested against later.
- 06
Registration, funding and drawdown
Incorporation, investment registration, sector licensing, bank account opening, inward remittance documentation and initial drawdown are coordinated as one sequence with one owner. Each step produces the evidence the next step will need. At completion the client receives a register of every obligation the new entity now carries and when each falls due.
Documents that can be put in front of a board.
Opportunity assessment
A written assessment of the market, the specific opportunity, the competitive position and the conditions on which it depends — including a clear statement of what would cause us to advise against proceeding.
Structuring memorandum
Entry vehicle options set out side by side, with the ownership, regulatory, tax and repatriation consequences of each, and a recommendation with the reasoning shown.
Approvals map and critical path
Every consent required, the authority responsible, the dependencies between them, the validity period of each, and the sub-set that must be in hand before capital can be committed.
Counterparty shortlist and diligence findings
A screened shortlist against a written partner specification, with integrity diligence findings, the sources relied on, and the questions that remain open.
Transaction support programme
A working negotiation calendar, a live conditions precedent tracker, and coordination between the client’s advisers, the counterparty and the authorities through to close.
Post-close obligations register
A single register of licence conditions, renewal dates, reporting obligations and governance requirements carried by the new entity, handed to the people who will operate it.
Foreign Direct Investment
The core application — market entry, structuring, registration and repatriation planning for capital arriving from outside Bangladesh.
Ports & Strategic Development
Terminal concessions and economic zone tenancy where the entry vehicle has to satisfy a concession authority as well as an investment authority.
Solar & Renewable Energy
Generation assets where the investment case is inseparable from tariff, offtake and grid interconnection terms agreed before financial close.
Technology & Innovation
Data centre, connectivity and digital infrastructure investment, where speed of entry is often the whole commercial argument.
What this capability does not include.
Not regulated investment advice
Fratres is not authorised by any financial regulator. We do not advise on the merits of investing in any particular security, arrange regulated investments, or hold client money.
Not legal, tax or audit opinion
Structuring analysis is prepared to inform a decision and is validated by licensed counsel and tax advisers before it is relied upon. We coordinate those advisers; we do not replace them.
Not capital raising
We do not raise funds, market investments to the public, or act as a placement agent. The client arrives with capital or with an authorised mandate to deploy it.
No guarantee of approval
No adviser can promise a regulatory decision, and any adviser who does should be treated with suspicion. We commit to the quality and sequencing of the submission, not to its outcome.
Government Relations
Regulatory Engagement
Partnership Development
Considering an investment in Bangladesh
The most useful first conversation is about structure and sequencing, before either is fixed. Enquiries are reviewed by the partnership and answered directly.
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