Mauritius is an island situated off the coast of East Africa with the areas of 1,865 square kilometers and with the population of 1.3 million.

There are many types of business available in Mauritius and most popular type of business includes companies, funds, trusts, proprietorship, partnership etc.

The type of business may also classify based on whatever the business is operating national or international level. In this article, we are going to discuss doing business in Mauritius and how to start a business in Mauritius.

Types of business structures in Mauritius

Before doing business in Mauritius, one should have a clear idea about the types of business structures available in the country. There is a type of business structures that are permissible by the companies’ act 2001 in Mauritius.

One of the most popular business structures in the domestic company and these are the companies that formed under the principle of limited liability or unlimited liability from the participators.

The limited companies may also fall under the category of limited by shares or limited by guarantee.

Any company maybe establish as either a private company or public company. The public company in Mauritius is to know as public unless the constitution of the company says it is a private company.

Any company in Mauritius that listed in stock exchange, therefore, deemed as a public company. On another hand, the private company cannot have more than 25 shareholders and not allow distributing its share to the public.

Additionally, the private companies in Mauritius may be regarded, as the small private company if the annual turn over is less than 10 millions Mauritius Rupees.

In addition, a private company may deem as a one-person company if the company got only one shareholder.

One may choose the sole proprietorship category for doing business in Mauritius. These are the companies where the business is not registered under the company’s act 2001 and a sole trader got unlimited liability.

These types of business require a business registration number (BRN) which falls under the business registration act 2002. One may also choose partnership segment for doing business in Mauritius and there are mainly two types of partnership available.

One is Societe en nom collectif and another is Societe en commandite simple. If one wishes to explore the international market and set up a company that is Mauritius based then the available options are global business license category 1 and global business license category 2.

These types of companies should be incorporated and then get additional licensing from financial Service commission.

Accounting and audit requirements

For doing business in Mauritius, one should strictly follow the accounting and audit requirements of the country defined at the companies act 2001.

According to the laws, companies have to maintain statutory books and record that explains the transactions and financial position of the country in detail.

Any domestic company in Mauritius (except the GBC 1 companies ) that have the annual turnover less than 50 million MUR have to produce the audited financial statement and then file the audit report to the registered office.

Additionally, a meeting of shareholders must be arranged annually and the date of the meetings cannot go beyond the six months after the date mentioned in the balance sheet and cannot go beyond 15 months since the last meeting was held.

Finance and investment

In order of doing business in Mauritius, a potential investor should have adequate knowledge about the finance and banking sector of the country. Mauritius got comparatively good banking system and there is a wide range of bank available in the country.

The locally owned and international owned banks are offering deposit-taking, private banking, loans, access to foreign exchange, advisory service on investment and also internet banking.

The Bank of Mauritius is the monitoring authority for all the banks in Mauritius. On the other hand, the stock exchange of Mauritius established in 1989 and the financial service commission regulates these organizations.

The stock market of Mauritius is available for the foreigner and they may get benefits from the stock exchange from numerous incentives. If one wishes to join, the stock exchange then he should appoint a sponsor who might conduct all the dealings with the Stock exchange in Mauritius.

However, there are entry requirements that might impose on the companies that wish to join the stock exchange.

One of the requirements is to have three years audited account and company should have 20 million MUR market capitalizations. Additionally, the potential company should also have 200 shareholders and 25% will be in the public hand.

After listing on the stock exchange Mauritius, companies also have to maintain a few requirements set by the financial service commission.

One of the major requirements is to update SEM about all price sensitive information.

The company has to publish a financial statement on a quarterly basis and have to publish an annual report for doing business in Mauritius.