Minimum one
Shareholders
A private company may have a single member. Shares may be held directly or by a nominee under declaration of trust.
Licensed service · Companies Law, Cap. 113
Cyprus company formation.
Incorporation is a week’s work. Getting the company right for the next decade — the share structure, the officers, the management-and-control position, the file a bank will later ask for — is the actual job. This page sets out what Cyprus law requires, what we decide with you before filing, and how long it takes.
In short
Forming a Cyprus private limited company under the Companies Law, Cap. 113, requires at least one shareholder, at least one director, a company secretary, and a physical registered office in Cyprus. There is no statutory minimum share capital. The name must be approved by the Registrar of Companies before filing. For a straightforward structure, incorporation is typically complete within two to three weeks of finished due diligence.
What the law requires
The six things a Cyprus company must have
Minimum one
Directors
No residency requirement in the Companies Law itself — but a Cyprus tax residency position usually rests on management and control, which in practice means Cyprus-resident directors who genuinely decide.
Required
Company secretary
The secretary may not also be the sole director, except in a single-member private company, where one person may hold both offices.
Required, in Cyprus
Registered office
Required, in Cyprus
Must be a physical address in the Republic. A P.O. box does not satisfy the requirement.
No statutory minimum
Share capital
€1 is technically sufficient; €1,000 is the customary issued capital and is what most banks and counterparties expect to see.
Approved in advance
Name
The proposed name is submitted to the Registrar of Companies and must not be identical or confusingly similar to an existing one.
The perimeter
The decisions that are expensive to change later
Most of what goes wrong with a Cyprus entity was decided in the first week and not revisited. These are the questions we settle with you — and, where they touch tax, with the adviser we introduce — before anything is submitted.
Share capital and classes
Whether one class is enough, or whether future investment, distributions or an exit need more than that from the outset.
The articles
A standard set is fine for a standard company. Groups whose lawyers will read them usually want reserved matters, transfer restrictions and quorum provisions written properly the first time.
Director residency
If the entity is intended to be Cyprus tax resident, the management-and-control position depends on who the directors are and where they actually decide. That is a tax question with a corporate answer.
Ownership and disclosure
Whether shares are held directly or by a nominee under declaration of trust — and either way, who is identified in the due diligence file and filed to the UBO register.
Intended activity
Whether what the company will actually do needs anything beyond a standard memorandum, a licence, or a conversation with a bank before rather than after incorporation.
Engagement
Two to three weeks, and the reason it is not faster
For a straightforward structure, incorporation and registered office are typically in place within two to three weeks of completed due diligence. Name approval and the filing itself take days.
The variable is almost never the Registrar — it is how quickly complete KYC and source-of-wealth documentation arrives. Firms advertising incorporation in forty-eight hours are quoting the filing step and quietly excluding the part that actually takes the time, which is also the part every bank will later re-examine.
What it costs
Quoted per mandate, fixed before work starts
We do not publish a rate card, because the cost is driven by the structure rather than the filing: how many officers are appointed, whether nominee shareholding is used, whether a trust sits above the company, how complex the ownership chain is for due diligence, and which introduced services are required.
What we do commit to is a fixed fee, with the scope and the named responsibilities set out in the engagement letter, agreed before any work begins.
Where tax comes in
We form the company.
We do not advise on its tax.
Whether a Cyprus company is the right vehicle, how it will be taxed, and what the group’s position is at home are questions for a licensed tax adviser — whom we introduce, brief and coordinate. Our part is the corporate facts that advice rests on, and implementing it in the entity’s records.
How introductions workQuestions we are asked
Cyprus company formation, answered
For a straightforward structure, incorporation and registered office are typically in place within two to three weeks once our due-diligence requirements are satisfied, depending on Registrar processing and the complexity of the structure. The variable is almost never the Registrar — it is how quickly complete KYC and source-of-wealth documentation arrives. Name approval and the filing itself are a matter of days once the file is ready.
We quote per mandate rather than publishing a rate card, because the cost is driven by the structure rather than the filing: how many officers are appointed, whether nominee shareholding is used, whether a trust sits above the company, the complexity of the ownership chain for due diligence, and which introduced services are needed. We give a fixed fee in the engagement letter before any work starts.
No. Incorporation can be completed without the shareholders or directors travelling to Cyprus. What does need to be genuinely in Cyprus is the company’s management and control if the entity is to be treated as Cyprus tax resident — which is a question for your tax adviser, and one of the reasons we provide directors who actually attend and decide.
There is no statutory minimum share capital for a Cyprus private limited company. One euro is technically sufficient. In practice €1,000 is the customary issued capital and is what banks and counterparties expect to see on a file, so we generally recommend it unless there is a reason to do otherwise.
Yes — professional directors, company secretary and nominee shareholding all fall within the administrative services of Article 4, L.196(I)/2012. We accept director appointments only where the officer can discharge the role in substance, and nominee shares are held under a declaration of trust with the beneficial owner identified in our due diligence file and disclosed to the UBO register as the law requires.
Tell us what the company is for
On the first call we will tell you what we would form, what we would introduce, and what it costs — or that we are not the right firm for it.