Name of Company

• For the registration of a Cypriot company the approval of a name is a prerequisite. The registrar of Companies and Official Reciever, is the competent authority to decide whether to approve or not the name and the identity of a suggested company

• Thus, the company’s name is to be approved from the registrar of Companies

• At the end of every company’s name the word Limited must be entered in the form of Ltd or Limited

• A client will need 5-7 weekdays for the approval of his company’s name

• Names which already have been approved by the registrar of Companies, or are general or descriptive names, or names incorporated with concrete words or geographic names are normaly regected by the Registrar of Companies

• Names which are considered misleading, or remind word of royal connection such as "Royal" (Royal), "King", “Queen”, "Crown" or otherwise include the words: “Imperial”, "National", "Company" or “Corporation”, "Community" “Commonwealth”, "Cooperative” may not become accepted from the registrar of Companies

• The names can be registered in any language using the Latin alphabet with the term that the Registrar of Companies is provided with the Greek or English translation

• Names of companies, that belong in existing companies which reside outside Cyprus, is possible to be acceptd provided the applicant has the prior approval of the existing company.

Founding Document and Constitution

The Founding and Constitutive Documents are drawn up by a local lawyer and are separated in two parts:

1.  The Founding Document, which includes the aims and the powers of a Company, provisions concerning the limited liability, members and capital of the company. Also the Founding Document should include the following:

• The company’s name

• The registered office and the address of the company which should reside in Cyprus

• The participial capital

• The names, the addresses and the description of shareholders with the number of shares they possess

If the anonymity of the shareholder is of essence then another person may register as a shareholder and give in the lawful shareholder (the beneficial owner) a statement of trust (a declaration of trust) which is accompanied by an empty document of transfer of shares.

2.  The Constitution, which includes the regulations of the internal administration of a company and the rights of shareholders between them. The Constitution also includes the following:

• The general assemblies of a Company

• The rights of vote of members/shareholders

• The nomination, powers and competences of the Directors

• The dividends

The Founding Document, the Constitution and the standard forms declaring the Directors, Secretary and Registered Office of company are submitted to the registrar of Companies who creates the constitution of the company

Company's Share Capital

The Company's Share Capital is expressed in EURO (€) and separated in shares of any value (commonly Euro 1€) again expressed in Euro.

Nominal Capital may be defined as the total share capital which the Company is allowed to publish to the shareholders.

The Paid Capital is the part of the Nominal Capital which was published to the shareholders and which is actually paid by them.

The Nominal and completely Paid Capital does not have legal requirements relatively with his minimal or maximum height.

It is proposed as the minimal nominal participial capital sum of L.K.£1,000. For special types of companies as actuarial companies, O.B.U.s etc the Nominal and Paid participial capital minimum limit is determined depending of the type of the Special Enterprise. The Nominal and Paid participial capital can be increased any moment with special resolution from the shareholders of the company.

Registered Office

Each Company must have a Registered Office as the formal address of the enterprise in Cyprus. In this place the certificate of registration must be shown as well the institutional books of company. For practical reasons the Company which undertakes the foundation of the Private Company can act as the Registered Office of the Private Company.

Time

Usually all processes lasts 15 weekday days. The approval of name lasts roughly 5-7 weekday days and the registration of company roughly two weeks. On the other hand as we reported above, there are ready made companies which somebody can buy and use instantly (shelf companies)