Procedure for the purchase of a shelf company

Phase 1: Consultation, Order, Payment, Preparation

Consultation

You have general and specific questions and go through the process with us. In addition to email correspondence, a telephone conversation is useful. If you are specifically considering acquiring a shelf company, we can arrange a notary appointment for you without obligation.

Please understand that we cannot promise you a fixed notary appointment before you place your order and cannot reserve a company or provide details of an available company.

Placing the order

You have completed and signed the order form and sent it to us. We will discuss the details of the order with you, including the name of the company and the business purpose. Ideally (if you want to speed up the process) you will already have completed the next two points.

Down payment or full payment

We now await receipt of the dawn payment or the full purchase price as shown on the order form. Only when we have received the payment can we give you a binding commitment for the notary appointment and the notary will be instructed on your behalf.

Please bear in mind that with the commissioning of the notary on your behalf, notary fees (drafting fees) will also be incurred if the appointment does not take place due to your fault (cancellation or non-appearance).

Identity documents

Due to legal requirements (Money Laundering Act), we and the notary require a copy of the identity documents (passport, identity card, proof of residence) of the buyer and the new managing director. If a buyer is a legal entity (company), we require an certificate of registration of the entity (or equivalent for foreign organisations), the identity documents of the authorised representative (managing director) and proof of the power of representation.

Please note that this information must be provided by you at least 36 hours before the notary appointment so that the notary appointment can be kept.

Phase 2: Notary appointment with purchase process

Preparation of the notary appointment

We check all your information and forward it to the notary. We ask that you answer any queries as soon as possible. Based on this, the notary’s office prepares all drafts of the necessary documents: transfer of company shares, change of business purpose, change of company name (if desired), dismissal and reappointment of the managing director (if desired), change of registered office (if desired), change of district court (if desired).

Draft documents

You will be sent the draft documents and we ask you to check them and approve them as soon as possible.

Notary appointment

We ask you to appear on time for the notary appointment, as the appointments are often tightly scheduled. The notary reads all the documents and you are asked to check the individual data (company name, business purpose, new managing director, registered office of the company) again. Last minute changes can be made here.

Payment of the entire purchase price if not already done

If you have not yet transferred the entire purchase price, the notary will wait until we confirm receipt of payment. In order not to delay the process, you have already made the total payment or transfer via real-time transfer.

After that, the notary will draw up the deeds of the documents. The new list of shareholders and the registration in the commercial register are sent electronically by the notary to the district court. The original certificates will be sent to you and will be scanned by us and sent to you.

Phase 3: Registration and post-processing

Commercial Register

A few days after the transmission by the notary, the new shareholders and the new managing director are entered in the commercial register. This means that the ownership and powers of representation are also visible to the outside world.

Account access

The bank account that contains the full share capital is owned by the company you bought and therefore does not need to be transferred separately. The previous managing director automatically loses the power of representation. After the new managing director has been entered in the commercial register, the new managing director is reported to the bank as an authorized representative of the company. To do this, he must carry out personal identification (typically video identification). We support you in this process.

Trade office, tax office

The managing director will carry out the registration at the trade office with the new business purpose and also inform the tax office. The tax office will then issue a tax number (if one has not yet been issued) or a new tax number (if the responsible tax office changes).

If the existing managing director is taken over by you (for a separate fee), he will carry out these formalities.

Registered Office

If you also rent our registered office location, every incoming mail will be accepted and processed by us. You don’t need to worry about it. If you use a different location for the company, you must ensure that the mail can be delivered to this address (company name on the mailbox) and process it.

Transparency Register

We enter the new beneficial owner in the transparency register. We also carry out this service for you.