Cypriot and European citizens may proceed with the necessary procedures and register their vessel on the Registrar of Ships. However, non-European citizens who wish to register a ship under the Cyprus flag they are obliged to incorporate a Cyprus Shipping Company. The incorporated Cyprus shipping company will acquire the ship in its name. In this article, I will provide some basic information concerning the formation and maintenance of a Cyprus shipping company.
The shipping company is registered as a private company with limited liability following the provisions of the Cyprus Companies Law. For the company formation, the filing of the memorandum and articles of association in Greek with the Registrar of Companies is obligatory. The bureaucratic…show more content… It can be submitted in full or by calls, in cash or the shares can be allocated per value. All classes of shares and with different voting and dividend rights are acceptable. Note that all shares should be nominative and bearer shares are not acceptable.
Shareholders and Security of Beneficial Shareholders
The incorporation and maintenance of a Cyprus private company require one shareholder, regardless of nationality. Based on the provisions of the Cyprus law all shareholders of the shipping company can be foreigners residing abroad. The transfer of shares from one foreigner to another is permitted.
Cyprus law recognises trust relationship both by statute and in equity. We may provide you the necessary support for the preparation and collection of the security documentation that includes the following:
trust deed; the original share certificates issued in the names of the nominee shareholders; instruments of transfer of shares executed in blank; directors' resolutions approving the transfer of shares (in case nominee directors are…show more content… The board meeting may take place in any part of the world.
Directors' resolution can be adopted in one of the following two ways:
at a board meeting duly gathered and held without a meeting given that the resolution is signed by all director
Auditors are approved and removed during the general meeting. Otherwise, the directors have the authority to appoint auditors until the convention of a general assembly. Books can be kept in any currency.
Secretary
The directors of the company appoint and remove the secretary of the company. The nationality of the secretary is not important and does not influence the status of the company. Nonetheless, it is recommended that the secretary is a company or an individual resident in the country where directors live. In addition to this, it is advisable to be appointed in Cyprus an assistant secretary who will attend to company's annual formalities in the country. The latter will assure that all company's annual returns are duly signed and filed with the Registrar of Companies by the secretary. It should be underlined that a director can also be company's secretary. This does not apply in the case there is only one director and if the company has one