Case Study

Actelion Australia

Growing a global business means attracting and retaining the right talent for this Swiss-based biopharmaceutical company.

Cardiovascular disease, central nervous system disorders, oncology and immunology are medical issues that affect millions of patients around the world.

As a company that focuses on discovery, development and commercialisation of medicines to treat these conditions, Actelion Australia has actively fostered a commitment to innovation that permeates throughout its global business.

With its headquarters in Allschwil/Basil, Switzerland and subsidiaries across the world, Actelion invests extensively in its staff and resources to create a culture of innovation throughout its business and employees.

By providing a well-resourced environment, the company has engendered an ethos amongst its workforce to constantly strive to deliver new treatments to meet previously unmet medical needs.

Issues

As a business with a strong global presence, Actelion has staff in a range of disciplines in many different countries including:

• drug discovery and development;
• safety and regulatory affairs,
• sales and marketing.

As a company with a mobile workforce, staff would often be moved overseas or be offered opportunities in Australia, and that presented a range of issues.

Objectives

Actelion Australia engaged Bates Cosgrave to put together a cross-border strategy for taxation and to help it package salaries and share options that would attract the caliber of talent it required to continue to grow its business. Cross-border strategies are often very complex arrangements, because of different treatment under taxation jurisdiction.

Our objective was to ensure that the packages Actelion offered its employees were not only attractive to employees but also tax-effective for the company to implement.

As a multidisciplinary firm, Bates Cosgrave was able to provide a broad range of services for Actelion and its employees. Our role was both advisory and functional: we provided cross-border advice on taxation, share schemes and where needed, termination, as well as providing a payroll service.

Challenges

Actelion are known for their interest in looking after their staff, and we were able to provide the breadth of support required for different employee groups.

One of the key challenges for Bates Cosgrave and Actelion was the differing needs of Australians going overseas and foreign nationals being employed in Australia.

Taxation and the treatment of share options vary from country to country, making packaging quite a complex task. Our team has extensive experience in this area, however, and worked with Actelion to devise a series of strategies to meet the challenges of each employee's needs.

Outcomes

Bates Cosgrave has provided a complete support service to Actelion, covering both general accounting, payroll and taxation needs. Our team continues to support Actelion in helping their staff to settle into their new environments and has an ongoing advisory role for the company.

Links: 
www.actelion.com
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