Phoebus, Christos Clerides & Associates LLC, the law firm founded in Nicosia in 1950, is extending its company formation work to founders, investors and corporate groups based outside Cyprus, with incorporations handled in English from first instruction through to registration. The move builds on the commercial and corporate practice the firm already runs for local and overseas clients, and reflects its decision to grow the share of its work that comes from abroad.
Phoebus, Christos Clerides & Associates LLC provides Company Formation in Cyprus from its office in Nicosia, the city where the Department of Registrar of Companies and Intellectual Property is based. The work covers approval of the company name, preparation of the memorandum and articles of association under the Companies Law, Cap. 113, the appointment of directors and a company secretary, the registered office and the filing of beneficial ownership details with the Register of Beneficial Owners. Founders who live abroad are taken through the identity and know-your-customer documents the process requires, so that the corporate file is complete before anything is submitted.
Cyprus has been a member state of the European Union since 2004 and adopted the euro in 2008, and its legal system, rooted in English common law, uses company law concepts familiar to investors from the United Kingdom and other common law jurisdictions. Those features have long made Cyprus companies a recognisable part of international group structures, from regional trading businesses to holding companies for shareholdings elsewhere in Europe and beyond. English is widely used in business on the island, which allows overseas founders to review their constitutional documents in a language they work in every day.
Many of the questions overseas founders raise arise after incorporation rather than before it. A company with several shareholders needs a shareholders' agreement setting out how decisions are made, how new investors come in and how a shareholder can leave, and a business intended to be run from Cyprus needs directors, board meetings and records that reflect where it is actually managed. Banks opening corporate accounts also expect a complete and consistent file, which turns the quality of the incorporation documents into a practical concern rather than a formality.
"Most of the founders who come to us from abroad are looking for more than a certificate of incorporation; they want to know the company will hold up when they open a bank account, bring in an investor or face a disagreement between shareholders," said Constantinos Clerides, Head of Commercial Dispute Resolution and Partner at Phoebus, Christos Clerides & Associates LLC. "Our corporate and dispute resolution lawyers work side by side, so we draft the articles and the shareholders' agreement knowing how those documents are read when something goes wrong, and we decided it was time to offer that to more clients outside Cyprus."
The firm was founded by Phoebus Clerides in 1950, and Dr Christos Clerides, who joined in 1982, served as President of the Cyprus Bar Association from 2020 to 2023. Its lawyers work in Greek and English and act for individuals, businesses and international clients in commercial, corporate, property, trust and dispute resolution matters. Constantinos Clerides, a barrister of Lincoln's Inn admitted to the Cyprus Bar in 2018, also teaches Commercial Law and Company Law at Frederick University.
The firm's Nicosia office, with its location and opening hours, is listed on its Google Business Profile, and its commercial and corporate practice continues beyond incorporation into shareholder arrangements, corporate governance, acquisitions and restructuring. For an international founder, that continuity means the lawyers who prepared the constitutional documents are the same lawyers available when the company takes on investors, enters major contracts or changes its ownership.
By opening its company formation work to clients abroad, the firm is aiming to give international founders a single point of contact for setting up a Cyprus company and for the legal questions that company meets as it grows. Further information about the firm's commercial and corporate work is shared on its LinkedIn page.
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For more information about Phoebus, Christos Clerides & Associates LLC, contact the company here:
Phoebus, Christos Clerides & Associates LLC
Phoebus, Christos Clerides
+357 22 753015
info@clerideslegal.com
Agias Elenis 2, Stasinos Court, Nicosia, Cyprus, 1060
