Starting a Business in Australia

Case Study

Background

Danish Co is a Significant Global Entity (SGE) with extensive experience in the mature European energy trading market and was seeking to expand into the younger Australian market and the opportunities this presented.

Ecovis Sydney was contacted by this Danish energy trading company, investigating the potential participation in the Australian energy trading market.

The Australian energy trading market is regulated via specific laws that are administered by the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) which oversees the various state-based electricity and gas markets.

Issue

The key issues Danish Co faced were:

• What were the requirements for membership of AEMO?
• Would these requirements affect the type of entity that Danish Co set up in Australia?
• As a start-up in Australia with no trading history, could the new entity open bank accounts as well as the commodity trading accounts necessary to trade on the National Electric Market (NEM)?
• How fast could all of this happen?

Solution

While the new Australian entity was straightforward, that is, a wholly owned subsidiary company (Danish Sub Co), the elements which required the most input from us as locals were:

• Fulfilling all membership requirements for AEMO.
• Establishing a bank account and a commodity trading account.

Indeed, we quickly undertook research into all aspects of the Australian energy trading market and specifically the membership requirements of AEMO. We liaised closely with AEMO personnel to ensure Danish Co fully understood the Australian requirements, and was able to obtain all necessary information to obtain membership as quickly as possible.

Within a few days we had undertaken the following:

• Established a company with ASIC (with David Conley as resident director), and had it registered for all necessary taxes with the Australian Tax Office (ATO) and the Office of State Revenue (OSR).
• Fast-tracked the membership application process through close and persistent liaison with AEMO.
• Enabled the client to quickly open a local bank account and an associated commodity trading account via our banking contacts.

We subsequently provided ongoing tax, accounting and audit support for the Australian operations.

Currently

Danish Sub Co has been successfully operating for several years