Cyprus Companies are in wide use as major vehicles in international tax structuring mainly due to the broad range of legal and tax related benefits they can offer because of the flexible tax system and the extended network of double tax treaties between Cyprus and other countries. In this respect, there are certain advantages that have made Cyprus ... Read More »

What is a Shareholder’s Agreement? A Shareholder’s Agreement is distinct from the company’s constitution. Without a Shareholder’s Agreement, the Company would be controlled solely and exclusively by the exercise of shareholding or directorship rights, through its constitution, and the Cyprus Companies Laws, which are ... Read More »

Directors exercise extensive powers in the management of their companies, influencing their company’s conduct, by virtue of their involvement in the decision making process. Under Cyprus law, the directors are considered to stand in a fiduciary relationship, with their company, and are subject to specific duties, stemming from their ... Read More »

ARBITRATION – NEW YORK CONVENTION – REQUIREMENTS OF ARTICLE IV (1)(b) FOR THE PRODUCTION OF THE ORIGINAL ARBITRATION AGREEMENT OR OF A DULY CERTIFIED COPY OF SAME – STRICT INTERPRETATION AND APPLICABILITY. In a recent decision the Supreme Court of Cyprus has adopted a strict interpretation of Article IV (1)(b) of the New York ... Read More »

The deprivation principle, as derived from the authorities is that “there cannot be a valid contract that a man’s property shall remain his until his bankruptcy, and on the happening of that event, go over to someone else and be taken away from his creditors”. To deprive the creditors in this way would be contrary to public ... Read More »

International multilateral conventions 1)  Is your country a contracting state to the New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards? Since when is the Convention in force? Were any declarations or notifications made under articles I, X and XI of the Convention? What other multilateral conventions ... Read More »

In two recent cases the Limassol District Court has held that the statutory right of a shareholder to petition for the winding-up of the company in which it is a member cannot be excluded and/or waived by shareholder’s agreement. In both cases two shareholders held equal shares and a deadlock occurred. The relationships between the ... Read More »

I. INTRODUCTION Cyprus is an ideal place for direct investments, because of inter alia, its strategic position, its excellent infrastructure, its favourable tax regime, its well trained labour, as well as the existence of a wide network of tax treaties, with almost all major countries. All investment activities are appropriate for the Cyprus ... Read More »

I. INTRODUCTION The use of a large number of Cypriot Companies as vehicles for carrying out joint ventures, led JV Partners to enter into Shareholders Agreements or JV Agreements, sometimes, without fully understanding the consequences, of their contractual arrangements, and especially and most importantly, the interplay, between the ... Read More »

The OPEN-ENDED FUNDS or OPEN-ENDED UNDERTAKINGS FOR COLLECTIVE INVESTMENT IN TRANSFERABLE SECURITY (“UCITS”), are regulated by the Law 200(1)/2004. The Closed-Ended Funds or International Collective Schemes (“ICIS”) are regulated by the Law 47(1)/1999. OPEN-ENDED FUNDS (“UCITS”) The capital of the Open-ended ... Read More »

Cyprus is a Common Law jurisdiction, and although many important areas of substantive law have been codified, English Common Law principles are still applicable where there is no covering specific Cyprus legislation or case law. More specifically, Section 29 (1) (c) of the Courts of justice Law (law No. 14 of 1960) provides that the Courts of ... Read More »