We are often asked this question and there’s a simple answer.
It is natural for someone in a particular location to be outward-looking and focus on how to reach buyers in a particular foreign market after hearing that a migrant from that country bought a business from someone you know. However, it is impractical to attempt to market a business opportunity to intending migrants from ALL POSSIBLE target countries at their source; and there’s really little point!
If you are moving permanently from Sydney to Singapore and wanted to buy a business there, where would you look?
Of course you would look for opportunities advertised in Singapore, not Australia! And you would probably ask your Singapore based migration agent for suggestions and referrals to those who can help you.
Similarly, if you were an intending migrant to Australia you would search in the destination and ask your Australian migration agent for help.
Well-heeled Business migrants from a wide range of countries are swarming to Australia and are buying $1M+ Australian businesses. Migration Programs are forecast to attract a record of 190,000 immigrants in 2013.
Of these, Skilled Migration Programs currently total around 130,000pa and comprise:
- 47,000 Employer sponsored
- 45,000 Skilled independent
- 30,000 Location nominated
- 8,000 Business Innovation and Investment Program
Key source countries for Australian business migration are the UK, India, China, South Africa, Malaysia, Philippines, Korea and Indonesia. Others include: USA, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Netherlands, Italy, Brazil, Nepal and Pakistan.
In 2012 the Australian government introduced Business Innovation and Investment visas to provide a boost to the Australian economy by encouraging high net worth individuals seeking permanent investment migration to establish or buy businesses.
There are three visa streams:
- The business innovation stream – for people with a successful business career to be involved as an owner in a new or existing business in Australia.
- The investor stream – for people with a successful record of qualifying business or eligible investment activity who will make a designated investment in Australia.
- The significant investor stream – for people who are willing to invest at least AUD 5 million into complying investments in Australia and want to maintain business and investment activity in Australia.
So what is the most efficient and effective way to make sure intending business migrants worldwide know that a business is for sale?
The key is to establish direct access with local migration agents, many of whom actively assist migrants source suitable businesses. In this way, migrants from all countries are catered for.
This is superior to engaging agents or brokers that specialise in sourcing migrants from a particular region or country, as they tend to exclude most others. For example, a Chinese or Singapore aligned broker would generally not adequately cover the European market, which has proven to be quite substantial.
Divest Merge Acquire has direct access to the majority of Australia’s 4,700+ Registered Migration Agents.
In this way, Divest Merge Acquire gains maximum exposure to migrants from all source countries.
Immigration agents receive regular updates on business opportunities in the $1M+ categories. Not only do they receive monthly email outs for both Divest Merge Acquire and MNA Direct (which markets business opportunities on behalf of others), but they are also offered incentives for referral of successful purchasers.
For information about government migration visa initiatives:
http://www.immi.gov.au/media/fact-sheets/27business.htm
http://www.immi.gov.au/skilled/business/_pdf/significant-investor-faq.pdf
Immigration Program stats:
http://www.immi.gov.au/media/statistics/statistical-info/visa-grants/migrant.htm
http://www.immi.gov.au/media/statistics/country-profiles/
