Company Formation

Reminder: Changes to Strike off Regime and Restoration Process in BVI – Transitional period ends 30 June 2023

The BVI Business Companies (Amendment) Act introduced changes to the strike off regime and restoration process that may impact your BVI company. Specifically, these changes affect BVI companies that were struck off after 1 July 2016 and before 1 January 2023, and that have not yet been dissolved.

If you have any such existing struck off companies that you may need to restore, it is recommended that you take action now to avoid the costly, complicated, and potentially lengthy process of restoration through a Court application.

Hong Kong Companies Ordinance: Reduction of capital

The Companies Ordinance (Cap 622) (CO) introduced a company-led court-free process for reduction of share capital in 2014.  This followed in the wake of the removal of the requirement for companies to have an authorised capital, which in turn followed a trend globally of removing restrictions in the handling of company capital that has swept up major common law countries such as the UK and Australia.

Amendments to the Seychelles Beneficial Ownership regime

The Beneficial Ownership (Amendment) Act, 2022 has been enacted with effect from 30 December 2022. The relevant amendments are introduced to ensure ongoing compliance with international standards set by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) which require jurisdictions to maintain beneficial ownership information that shall be accessible and made available upon request to competent authorities.

We have detailed 5 significant updates that affect Seychelles International Business Companies in our summary.

Hong Kong Budget 2023-24

Hong Kong’s Financial Secretary, Paul Chan, outlined his budget for 2023-24 in his Budget Address on 22 February 2023. Highlights of some measures of particular interest to Hong Kong companies and those with business interests in Asia, are set out below.