Visas, Taxes, and Legalities - Possible comp be sold while on expat job- risks? smarttalk - Mar 31, 2006 - 11:52 AM Post subject: Possible comp be sold while on expat job- risks?
My husbands current employer is a division of a very large international company. He is the Primary project engineer to build a plant outside of Shanghai. We have not moved there yet. However, Lg internt'l corp. (LIC) has put this division up for sale to fund purchase of another lg. intrnt'l corp. 1st LIC has said they are funding the China plant as it makes the division more attractive.
What might happen if we move over there & the divison gets sold to another employer? Will our contract be solid? How do we protect ourselves? Ideas?
Magnolia - Mar 31, 2006 - 12:02 PM Post subject:
any way for your husband to find out if the contract will be continued should the division be sold? is there a clause in the sale that requires all contracts to be honored as they were originally written until the contract expires?
possible for the current company to find out if your husband's position and contract will be maintained after the sale? perhaps they can mention that they are planning to send an expat over to shanghai to oversee things and want to know what will happen to him after the sale. it seems like a lot to ask, but in reality, the company is the one who has asked your husband to come here so they should at least try to take care of him should his position be affected by the transfer.
totally, totally different, but when i was at uni, we lived in a house that was for sale. in the sales contract, it stated that the current tenants of the house (us) were able to stay until the expiration of the lease. perhaps something like that can be put into place for your husband's position? i know that big buiness tends to overlook a lot of things, but it may be worth asking what protection the company will offer your husband.
bernie77 - Mar 31, 2006 - 01:19 PM Post subject:
watch out with this one... maybe your contract would still be valid... but your new employer/owner might not be supportive of you and your expat contract. He might have other ideas about costs and strategy of the company, and your husband might not be part of it. Your hsuband might not even want to be part of the new direction.
Make sure you get a job return clause with the parent company so you can move back again. Contract law in China in the end is weak, so you could be fired/reorganised. A retunr clause should be minimal in this uncertain case.
One acquantaince here worked for a large multinational and her division got sold to a Chinese company. She scrambled quickly to another company as she didn;t want to be part of the new owner and her current employer was not supportive enough in relocating her.
smarttalk - Apr 02, 2006 - 01:26 AM Post subject:
Thank you so very much for your insights. My husband is a "good engineer" and really wants to do this job (He has already put in loads of "blood sweat and tears" into this project), yet struggles with the uncertainty of it all. Personally, I think that we would do better if he moved to a more stable company situation & be avaialble to do China projects for them.
As it is, I need to be gathering the experiences and insights of folks who are already there.
I will keep you informed. <grin>