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Corporate Governance, Restructuring and M&A Advisory

WVT's corporate law practice advises in-house counsel and Group Legal Directors on the full lifecycle of corporate entities — from formation and governance documentation through to mergers, demergers, share transfers, and liquidations. Our attorneys and tax advisors act across Dutch BV and NV structures, Luxembourg SARL, SA, and SCSp vehicles, and Swiss AG and GmbH entities. Cross-border mandates regularly involve coordinated notarial execution alongside legal structuring — a combination most single-jurisdiction firms cannot provide in-house. WVT covers both, enabling clients to consolidate legal and notarial work under one mandate rather than managing parallel instruction tracks.

Our practice

Corporate transactions across the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Switzerland require counsel experienced in each jurisdiction’s distinct legal framework — not generalist advisors replicating the same approach in every market. WVT’s attorneys and tax advisors hold direct expertise in each jurisdiction’s corporate code, notarial requirements, and regulatory filing obligations.

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Corporate Migration and Registered Office Transfers

Cross-border corporate migration — transferring a company's registered office and legal domicile from one jurisdiction to another — involves simultaneous legal, notarial, and regulatory steps across at least two legal systems. WVT manages this process for groups relocating entities between the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Switzerland, coordinating the exit formalities in the departing jurisdiction and the entry requirements in the receiving one. Registered office transfers frequently intersect with tax substance requirements and domiciliation arrangements. WVT's integrated approach means the legal migration, notarial execution, and tax substance assessment proceed in parallel rather than sequentially — reducing transaction timelines and consolidating advisory fees.

FAQ's

What distinguishes WVT from a single-jurisdiction corporate law firm?

WVT operates across the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Switzerland under a single integrated mandate — covering corporate law, notarial execution, and tax advisory simultaneously. Single-jurisdiction firms require clients to coordinate parallel instruction tracks across borders, managing separate legal, notarial, and tax advisors in each country. WVT consolidates this into one engagement, reducing coordination overhead and ensuring consistent legal strategy across all three jurisdictions. For groups with entities in multiple European holding locations, this integration is a material operational advantage.

Which corporate transaction types does WVT advise on across its three jurisdictions?

WVT advises on mergers, acquisitions, demergers, inversions, joint ventures, share transfers, capital restructurings, and corporate liquidations across Dutch, Luxembourg, and Swiss law. Our attorneys and tax advisors manage entity formation, governance documentation, and regulatory filings alongside transaction execution. For PE-backed groups, WVT regularly handles the full entity lifecycle across multiple portfolio companies simultaneously — from Luxembourg SCSp and SOPARFI structures through to Dutch BV holding companies and Swiss AG operational entities. For incorporation services across these jurisdictions, see our company incorporation pages for the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Switzerland.

How does WVT handle the notarial requirements embedded in corporate transactions?

Notarial execution is a legal prerequisite — not an optional step — for a significant number of corporate acts in the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Switzerland. Incorporation deeds, share transfer deeds, mortgage deeds, and capital reduction resolutions each require notarial authentication in one or more of these jurisdictions. WVT’s notarial practice operates alongside the legal team, meaning notarial preparation runs in parallel with legal structuring rather than following it sequentially. This avoids the delays that arise when legal and notarial work are managed by separate firms. See our notary services pages for further detail on jurisdiction-specific requirements.

Does WVT advise on the tax implications of corporate restructurings alongside the legal work?

WVT’s corporate tax advisors work in direct coordination with the legal team on restructurings, mergers, and migrations — ensuring that the legal structure chosen is also tax-efficient across all affected jurisdictions. This covers participation exemption analysis, transfer pricing implications, DAC6 reporting obligations, and Pillar Two compliance for multinational groups above the GloBE threshold. Clients do not need to manage separate legal and tax instruction tracks; both workstreams run within the same engagement. For more detail on WVT’s tax capabilities, see our corporate tax services and international taxation pages.

Can WVT assist with corporate migration — transferring a company's domicile between jurisdictions?

Corporate migration between the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Switzerland involves coordinated exit formalities in the departing jurisdiction and entry requirements in the receiving one, executed simultaneously across two legal systems. WVT manages this process end-to-end, covering the legal restructuring, notarial execution, regulatory filings with the relevant commercial registers, and — where required — the tax substance assessment in the new jurisdiction. WVT’s corporate migration page sets out the full process in detail for groups considering a registered office transfer.

What governance services does WVT provide for established corporate entities?

For multinational groups with existing entities across the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Switzerland, WVT provides ongoing governance support covering the full range of statutory corporate acts. This includes drafting and filing board resolutions, convening and minuting shareholder meetings, amending articles of association, processing share capital increases and reductions, managing director appointment and resignation filings, and maintaining statutory compliance with the relevant commercial registers — the RCS in Luxembourg, the Handelsregister in Switzerland, and the KVK in the Netherlands.

Ongoing governance mandates are particularly relevant for groups that maintain holding structures or intermediate entities in these jurisdictions without a locally resourced legal team. WVT acts as standing legal counsel, ensuring that all statutory obligations are met on time and that governance documentation meets the standard required for future transactions, audits, or regulatory review. Groups with Luxembourg domiciliation or substance arrangements will find that governance and domiciliation services can be bundled under a single instruction — see our Luxembourg domiciliation page for further detail.

How does WVT coordinate cross-border mandates where multiple jurisdictions are involved simultaneously?

For transactions spanning two or more of WVT’s jurisdictions — for example, a Dutch BV migrating its registered office to Luxembourg while simultaneously restructuring its Swiss subsidiary — WVT assigns a coordinating attorney responsible for the overall transaction timeline, with jurisdiction-specific attorneys managing each local workstream. This structure avoids the version-control and communication delays that arise when a client coordinates between separate national firms.

Each jurisdiction’s legal requirements, filing deadlines, and notarial prerequisites are mapped at the outset of the engagement, and the sequencing of steps across jurisdictions is planned to minimise elapsed time. For transactions with tight closing timelines — common in PE-backed acquisitions or restructurings — this coordinated approach is operationally significant. Clients with entities under WVT’s corporate law mandate can also draw on WVT’s corporate tax services and company incorporation capabilities within the same engagement, without separate onboarding or fee negotiations.

What corporate law services does WVT provide specifically for PE funds and their portfolio companies?

Private equity mandates typically involve a combination of fund-level structuring, portfolio company governance, and transaction execution — often across multiple jurisdictions simultaneously. WVT advises PE fund managers on Luxembourg SCSp, RAIF, SIF, SICAR, and SOPARFI structures, on the governance and statutory compliance of portfolio companies in the Netherlands and Switzerland, and on the legal mechanics of acquisitions, add-ons, recapitalisations, and exits.

Portfolio company work frequently spans all three of WVT’s jurisdictions: a Luxembourg fund holding a Dutch operating company with a Swiss subsidiary is a standard configuration. WVT manages the legal governance across all three entities under a single coordinated instruction, covering board resolutions, shareholder approvals, share transfer registrations, and any notarial acts required in each jurisdiction. For groups considering new entity formation as part of a PE transaction, WVT’s Luxembourg incorporation and Netherlands incorporation pages set out the relevant processes and timelines.

Does WVT advise on shareholder disputes and corporate litigation alongside transactional corporate law?

WVT’s corporate law practice covers both transactional work and contentious corporate matters, including shareholder disputes, board-level governance conflicts, and enforcement of shareholder agreements across the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Switzerland. Contentious corporate matters in these jurisdictions frequently involve injunction applications, general meeting challenges, or enforcement of drag-along and tag-along provisions in multi-jurisdictional shareholder agreements.

In-house counsel dealing with a dispute involving entities in multiple jurisdictions benefit from having a single legal team familiar with all three legal systems — rather than managing separate national counsel who may give inconsistent advice on parallel proceedings. WVT coordinates across jurisdictions to ensure that steps taken in one jurisdiction do not prejudice the position in another. Where a dispute involves tax implications — for example, a forced share transfer or a director removal with remuneration consequences — WVT’s corporate tax advisory team is involved from the outset.

How does WVT's corporate law service interact with its domiciliation and substance offering?

Corporate domiciliation — providing a registered address and administrative substance for entities that lack a local operational presence — is a regulated service in Luxembourg and Switzerland, and subject to substance-over-form scrutiny from tax authorities in both jurisdictions. WVT’s corporate law mandate and its domiciliation service are designed to work in combination: the legal team handles governance and compliance obligations, while the domiciliation arrangement provides the registered address, director services where required, and evidence of local substance for tax purposes.

For groups maintaining holding structures in Luxembourg or Switzerland, the combination of legal governance and domiciliation under a single provider materially reduces the risk of substance challenges by local tax authorities or, in cross-border situations, the foreign tax authority of the group’s parent. WVT’s Luxembourg domiciliation and Switzerland domiciliation pages set out the substance requirements and service parameters for each jurisdiction. Groups with DAC6 or Pillar Two compliance obligations will also find that coordinating legal, domiciliation, and tax workstreams through WVT avoids the fragmentation risk that arises when these are managed separately.