Case study: Australian engineering group opens a Fiji branch with a minimum investment waiver

Client: an Australian fire-safety engineering group (name withheld)
Needed: a Fiji presence to deliver contracts for a major Fiji resort
Services: branch registration, tax registration, minimum investment waiver, investor permit

The challenge

The group had won work with a large resort in Fiji and needed a legal presence here quickly. It didn’t need a separate Fiji company, and its Fiji operation would run on specialist skills deployed from Australia rather than a large capital injection. That put it well below the FJ$300,000 minimum investment for foreign investors.

What we did

• Branch, not subsidiary. We advised registering the Australian company as a foreign company in Fiji, with our office as its registered office and Alvin as local agent.
• Registration and tax on the same day. The branch was registered with the Registrar of Companies, and the branch and its director received their Fiji TINs the same day.
• Minimum investment waiver. We built the business plan, three-year projections and the case for a waiver based on skills transfer and local employment, and lodged it with the Ministry.
• Investor permit. We prepared and lodged the director’s investor permit with Immigration Fiji, including all supporting documents.

The result

• Fiji branch registered and tax-registered within days of receiving documents.
• Minimum investment waiver approved by the Ministry, allowing the branch to operate with an investment matched to its real needs.
• The branch went on to win a second, larger contract with the resort.
• The director’s investor permit was granted.
• The client has now engaged us to bring in a specialist team from its head office, with work permits, to deliver the hotel contract and train local staff.

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