Business resilience

Since the global health crisis and the shocks it caused, how can companies be resilient and anticipate the future?

• Exit from the crisis and social resilience
• Environmental Resilience
• Prevention of criminal risk   
• Tax Resilience

Exit from the crisis and social resilience

In order to enable companies to cope with and respond urgently to the consequences of the COVID-19 epidemic, social dialogue has been essential in the conduct of negotiations with the social partners and in the collection of opinions from employees’ representatives.

In addition, the furlough system put in place as a result of the health crisis is gradually changing as of June 1: controls on the application and implementation of furlough are being strengthened, with the risk, in addition to the reimbursement of allowances paid, of criminal sanctions.

Finally, many companies are forced to review their organisation and strategy. Various levers can be activated at the end of the crisis, with or without staff reductions.

Whatever the situation in which their company finds itself, our social team assists its clients at all stages of their project (definition of strategy and planning, drafting and negotiation, implementation…) in order to ensure the best rebound for their activity and its human capital.

Karine Bézille | Sandra Hundsdörfer | Sophie Marinier

Environmental Resilience

Both the COVID-19 crisis and earlier Lubrizol’s crisis have shown how important it is for companies in the industrial sector to think, as far upstream as possible, about their resilience to environmental and health crises. Based on proven know-how in the industrial sector (complex platforms, seveso sites, etc.), our team supports the analysis and prioritization of risks related to the company’s activity, considering both regulatory and reputational aspects.

Using a range of diversified technical, regulatory and transactional tools, we support strategies to improve resilience through, for example, the development of phased regulatory compliance plans in conjunction with the environmental administration, with which the team maintains close relations. This approach allows predictability of investments over time and stability of regulatory and legal constraints.

Frédérique Chaillou | Vincent Sol | Anne Delorme

Prevention of criminal risk

Criminal complaints related to the COVID-19 health crisis have multiplied, targeting professionals, both public and private, who are facing unprecedented challenges in organizing the continuity of human activities, while protecting everyone’s health. The criminal offences brandished by some victims are a cause for concern for any manager: deliberate endangerment of others’ lives, injuries or even homicide, failure to comply with health, hygiene and safety rules, etc. A debate on the organisation of criminal liability has been opened in parliament.

However, the COVID-19 crisis did not undermine the principles of criminal responsibility. Prior to any questioning, our team is familiar with the implementation of legal tools for the prevention of criminal risk, which apply particularly to the resilience of companies (delegation of powers, team training, audit and traceability of measures taken, etc.). From the first sign of a criminal charge, we intervene to manage each step of the procedure, to limit the criminal risk before the criminal courts.

Alexandre de Konn

Tax Resilience

Crisis situations, both health and economic, call for a rethinking of the tax function within groups.

At the international level, the tax management of intra-group flows is impacted in several ways: firstly, transfer pricing, insofar as the policies put in place prior to the crisis may lose coherence (reliability of comparables, impact of under-activity, etc.). Secondly, the management of tax losses carryforward, with the question of their loss (liquidation) or their possible transfer between entities established in different countries, depending on the anticipated capacity of certain entities to recover from the crisis (intra-group sale of assets / step-ups).

More generally, the necessary reorganisations of activities will need a fiscal look, design or reshape, according to a cost/opportunity approach.

Movements of assets, businesses (reorganization / acquisition / relocation), and of human resources (impatriation/expatriation) will increase, each time with a tax impact to be anticipated and managed.

Finally, the relationship with the tax authorities will play an important role in the overall reflection (management of tax audits, negotiation, management of tax disputes).

Our tax team is in a position to assist its clients with all these issues, to anticipate with them any new shocks and thus secure their strategic choices.

Mathieu Selva-Roudon | Martine Blanck-Dap | Sandra Fernandes | Virginie Martel