A business developer in Luxembourg who reads the numbers behind every introduction.

Business development that starts with a market-entry file

Most foreign companies that fail in Luxembourg do not fail on demand. They fail on sequence. They sign a first client before they know whether the activity needs the business permit Luxembourg requires, before VAT registration, before anyone has read the accounts of the partner who promised the volume. A business developer who also keeps books sees that order problem immediately: it is the same problem a late annual accounts file reveals. The calendar was never written.

The engagement therefore begins with a market-entry file, not with a list of names. It answers, in writing, whether the activity can be carried out in Luxembourg and under which business permit, which legal form and registrations it needs, what the cost base and pricing look like once Luxembourg salaries, rents and VAT are in the model, who the realistic counterparties are, and which of them pass a first screening on filed accounts. It is a document the client can take to its board, its bank and its lawyer, and the document that decides whether any introduction should be made at all.

Where the answer is yes, the set-up page describes the formation and substance work that follows. Where the answer is no, the file costs a fraction of a failed entry and the engagement ends there.

The introduction agreement, clause by clause

Introducers are circumvented so often because they work without a contract. I do not make an introduction, general or real estate, without a signed introduction agreement. Its five clauses are fixed before any name is exchanged.

• Perimeter. Which counterparties, which territory, which products or services, and which of my two business permits the introduction falls under: general commercial introductions under 10077275 / 3, real estate introductions under 10077275 / 2. An introduction outside the perimeter is not an introduction under the agreement.
• Fee event. The precise event that triggers the fee: a signed contract, a first invoice paid, a completed transaction. Not “a meeting”, not “a lead”. The fee is a commercial introduction fee, agreed in writing and invoiced by Financial Services Luxembourg.
• Duration. The term of the agreement, and the tail period during which a contract signed with an introduced counterparty still triggers the fee.
• Traceability. Each introduction is dated, named and acknowledged in writing by the client, so that neither party has to reconstruct who introduced whom a year later.
• Non-circumvention. The client undertakes not to contract with an introduced counterparty through another channel to avoid the fee. The clause is drafted by the client's avocat or mine; it is a contract term, not a slogan.

The agreement is signed after the NDA and before the first qualification note. A client who does not want a written frame does not want qualified introductions. It wants a free list, and that is not the service.

How an engagement runs

What makes this different from a sales agent is the qualification step. I read a counterparty's accounts the way I read a client's: filing history, equity, working capital, related-party balances, auditor's opinion where there is one. A partner that cannot pay is screened out before the introduction, not discovered after the invoice.

Three typical situations

What my business permit covers, and what stays outside

What I do not accept

• An introduction without a signed introduction agreement, or with a fee event that cannot be stated in one sentence.
• A counterparty whose beneficial owners cannot be documented to a normal anti-money-laundering standard, on either side of the introduction.
• An introduction whose purpose is to raise capital, place securities or find investors for a fund or a financial product.
• A client that asks me to speak in its name as if I were its employee, or to sign on its behalf without a written mandate.
• A success fee quoted before the activity, the target list and the counterparties' accounts have been read.

Start with the NDA

Search intents covered by this page

Business permit certificates to download (PDF)

Each certificate is the official business permit issued by the Ministry of the Economy, with its QR code. Scan the QR code with the GouvCheck app, which checks the authenticity and currency of the document.

10077275 / 2

Real estate business introducer

Issued 25/03/2025

Download PDF ↓

10077275 / 3

Auxiliary commercial activities and services

Issued 25/03/2025

Download PDF ↓

The business permit is personal and revocable. Public verification: official Guichet.lu register.

Evidence and verification

Every statement on this page that can be verified independently is listed below with its source. Items that cannot yet be verified are flagged and are not presented as facts.

This page follows the site's editorial policy: a statement is either sourced or flagged. Corrections follow the corrections policy. The content is general information, not legal, tax or accounting advice.

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