Luxembourg has a surprising new economic interest group: the World League of Agents. Behind the ‘obscure’ name lies the well-known sector of yacht agents. Fifteen companies--six from Monaco, five from the south of France, one from Croatia, one from Singapore, one from New Zealand and one from Indonesia--have joined it. They’ve built up a reputation for providing port assistance, coordinating crews, welcoming passengers, monitoring the conformity of these palaces of the seas and even personalising experiences for yacht owners or those who operate them on their behalf.

One of the ‘captains’ at the helm of this little vessel, Tomaso Moreno--a Genoese by birth and Monegasque by adoption--explains that the GIE “should enable us to pool a certain number of costs and dynamics faced by players in the market. Sometimes each of us does the same thing five or six times. Today, if I provide a service for another company in the same sector, I have to invoice and pay tax. With all the paperwork. Here, it’s a question of being able to be bigger and then distribute things properly.”

“There’s also the whole aspect of digitising our activities, where joint solutions can emerge,” adds the 50-year-old.

But why Luxembourg? The grand duchy was once a well-known maritime flag but has lost its reputation to Malta? “We looked at the various possibilities open to us and Luxembourg is the only country where you can create an EIG with non-European companies. Our market is global and other players could join us, particularly Americans and Italians.”

Also at the helm of the new World League of Agents is a non-profit organisation where independent agents can recommend the services of other independent agents, each with specific local or general skills. Moreno intends to bring each of the 26 players in this league of champions into the Luxembourg GIE.

This article was originally published in .