When it comes to company acquisition, it is important to understand and decide, whether one wants to register a totally new company and start it from scratch or choose a previously formed or founded company that was already registered in advance. Readymade companies are also called paper companies or shelf companies (blank check companies) because of their acquisition process structure. Usually the company has all requirements for the legal registration already fulfilled. Therefore, it is ready to be bought by any person willing to skip the registration and incorporation process. Accounting and various law firms usually sell such companies. Mentioned companies do not have any trading or business activity going on, they just exist in a standby mode.

The advantages of readymade companies
New company registration process usually takes weeks or even months to complete because of the documentation processing and approval. On the contrary, the only thing a businessman needs to do, when purchasing a readymade company is to register its purchase in order to achieve a legal completion of the purchase process. If a person choses to complete the registration process online, then it will took even less time, usually it can be done in a number of hours. One more advantage is that an already registered company has a past or a status, showing that it has been in business for some period of time which means that it gives an impression of an existing experience when looking at company’s data for the first time.

Readymade company acquisition in Cyprus (fees, requirements)
There are different official webpages or service providers offering readymade Cypriot companies to be purchased online. These could be LP, LLC, Trust or other type of companies. The necessary capital varies starting from few hundreds up to several thousands, depending on the size or scale of a company and its age as well. Such service includes all the paperwork to be completed and relevant fees to be paid to HMRC.

A purchase of the company may come with different licenses such as insurance, banking or other specialist services, tax registration, bank accounts, a certificate that the company has no liabilities, company’s office address, 2 nominee shareholders, 2 nominee directors and a secretary and an apostilled power of attorney. However, sometimes company’s total price does not include some of the mentioned extras, so the future owner must request them by paying for them and considering the time frames required for company’s purchase completion process.

If a person resides in a country other than Cyprus while purchasing the company, he/ she can have all the procedures for company’s maintenance and operation to be done through the email, fax or courier.

Basic requirements
If you are willing to purchase a readymade Cypriot company, there will be following requirements you should be aware of:

The purchase must be made with a nominee director and nominee shareholder appointed;
A person will need to choose company’s name from the list given by the service providers;
A set of corporate documents must be signed by the person who is purchasing the company (the trust deed, the open date share transfer agreement);
A company must have a financial support for some period of time in order to function.
Time frames
If you are purchasing Cypriot readymade company you should be ready to deal with the following time frames:

A vat registration number can be given in maximum 2 days
Bank account can be opened in maximum 5-7 days
Company’s new name (if changed) approval by the Cyprus Registrar of Companies maximum 3-4 days
Adding new directors to the documents (if necessary) maximum 7-10 days