Company registration in Saudi Arabia

Ministry of Commerce & Industry KSA is the authority of limited liability company registration in Saudi Arabia. To be a shareholder in a company a foreigner must obtain a foreign capital investment license from Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority SAGIA.

Malaysia also provides a simple process for registering your company. Company registration in Malaysia can be done if you follow some easy steps and rules.

SGIA prescribed minimum capital requirements of LLCs involving foreign participation and/ or local partners are as follows:

• General trading companies: SAR 100,000
• General Manufacturing companies: SAR1,000,000
• Companies investing in Agricultural sector: SAR 25,000,000

It’s required a minimum of one shareholder for company formation in KSA. Well, after getting the licensing issues the LLC has to be registered with the Ministry of Commerce and Investment. The formalities and process of company registration in Saudi Arabia (KSA) progress in 11 steps as follows:

Reserving a company name

Authority: Ministry of Commerce and Industry is the authority of company registration in Saudi Arabia (KSA). Usually, a name reserved remains valid for two months. Thereafter the process has to be done again. The process requires one working day if done online but requires no charge.

Submission of the articles of association & Notarization

Authority: Unified Center (UC)/Companies Department. Requiring one working day and no charge for submission of documents and authentication . Noting requires 3 days more and no charge.

Opening bank account

Authority: Bank. It is required 1 working day to open the account.

Obtaining a Business Location License from the Municipality and Registering with the Post Office.

Authority: Municipality of Riyadh and Post Office. It is required 1 working day and no charge.

Paying the registration fee

Authority: Bank in the premises of the Unified Center UC. The processing time is 1 working day. The company registration fee in Saudi Arabia is SAR500. More SAR 650 is required for the publication of a summary of Articles of Association AA.

Obtaining the Certificate of Registration

Authority: Unified Center (UC)/Companies Department and to obtain a certificate of company registration in Saudi Arabia might require 2 working days.

Payment of Chamber of Commerce membership fee & authorization of company Signatories by the Chamber.

Authority: Chamber of Commerce. The membership of the Chamber is SAR 2000. 1 Day to complete the job.

Registering with the Ministry of Labor

This process requires 1 working day but no costs.

Registering with the GOSI [General Organization for Social Insurance]

Authority: General Organization for Social Insurance GOSI The procedure requires two working days to complete but no costs.

Registering with the Department of Zakat [DZIT]

Authority: Department of Zakat DZIT. 2 to 3 days are required to complete the registration process.

Opening a Branch Office in KSA

• Well, it’s tough to get a foreign capital investment license from SAGIA as required to forming an LLC. In fact, this license SAGIA seldom issues. To bypass the issuance of such license the foreign investors are advised either to Form a Branch of a company registered in one of the member countries of GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council] exempted from this licensing or come into an agreement with a local. SAGIA is the authority to register a Branch office in KSA and requiring following documents to be submitted:
• A letter from the Board of Directors of the parent company communicating the decision of opening a Branch or a marketing center, indicating the location and number of centers. The proposal should be authenticated by the Chamber of Commerce before submitting to SAGIA to incorporate a limited company.
• Copy of the Articles of Association of the parent company authenticated by Ministry of Foreign Affairs KSA
• The Shareholders shall be not government employees.
• Copy of Passport or ID of the Branch Manager authenticated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs KSA. In the case of Saudi Arabian national as manager ID is required.
• Certificate from Bank confirming deposition of Branch capital.
• The branch capital shall be in line with the branch activity but shall not be and shall not be in any case less than SAR 25000.

To complete all the formalities 3-7 weeks time and branch office registration fees are SAR 3390 might require.

 Representative office

Establishing a Representative or a liaison office is normally granted only for companies that have multiple contracts with the government and require a local office to oversee the implementation of those contracts. Representative offices are not allowed to engage in direct or indirect commercial activities in the Kingdom and also require no legal status.

Corporate Taxes in KSA

The Corporate Taxes payable in KSA are as follows:

The Investors Service Center ISC at SAGIA oversees all matters related to licensing and registration of foreign direct investments. The ISC was intended to acting as a one-stop service unit to assist the foreign investors and minimize procedural complicates. SIDF Saudi Arabian Industrial Fund may come to provide financing to overseas companies to the tune of 50 percent with 15 years payback period.