Company Formation & Corporate Services
A registration certificate is not an operating company.
Incorporation is the visible step. What makes the entity able to trade is the sequence around it: the structure decided before filing, the tax and social-security registrations that follow, the bank file, and the administration that keeps it in good standing afterwards. We run the whole sequence from our own offices.
Markets
Angola · Mozambique · South Africa · Portugal & Spain · Brazil
Our offices
Luanda · Maputo · Johannesburg · Lisbon · Brazil
Scope
Structure → incorporation → registrations → administration
Chain
Entity, people, procurement and freight together
What it covers
Four parts, in the order they actually happen
Structure is decided first because it is expensive to reverse; administration matters longest because it is what keeps the entity in good standing after everyone has stopped paying attention.
01
Corporate structuring
What is decided before anything is filed: who owns the entity, how it is capitalised, what it is permitted to do and who binds it. Getting this wrong is expensive to reverse and is the most common reason a formation has to be redone.
- Legal form chosen against the activity and the licensing regime
- Shareholding, capital and the treatment of foreign participation
- Corporate object drafted to cover what the business will actually do
- Directors, powers of attorney and local-representation requirements
02
Company formation
The incorporation itself, in the registry and in the sequence that market requires — the one-stop shop in Angola, the two-step CREL or BAU route in Mozambique, the CIPC in South Africa, Empresa na Hora or the notarial route in Iberia.
- Name reservation and company documents in the local instrument
- Filing, publication and the constitutive act
- Certified translation, apostille and consular legalisation of foreign documents
- Registered office and the address obligations that follow
03
Tax and statutory registrations
The registrations that turn a registered company into one that can invoice, employ and import. They are separate from incorporation in every market we operate, and they are where most timelines actually slip.
- Tax registration and the activity declaration
- Social security enrolment as an employer
- Payroll withholding registrations
- Import, export and sector licences where the activity requires them
04
Statutory administration
What keeps the entity compliant after the certificate is issued: the filings, the books, the corporate records and the changes that have to be registered when the company changes.
- Annual filings and corporate record-keeping
- Registered office and correspondence handling
- Changes of shareholding, object, capital or management
- Coordination with local accountants and auditors
By market
Company formation, jurisdiction by jurisdiction
The registry, the sequence and the registrations differ in every market. These pages set out how each one actually works, and who does it.
- Company formation in Angola
- Company formation in Mozambique
- Company formation in South Africa
- Company formation in Portugal and Spain
- All markets we operate in
- Employer of Record, if you need people first
Brazil is served from our Brazilian desk for structuring and corporate administration; in India and China we do not offer company formation, and we say so rather than subcontract it.
What you receive
What you actually receive
A formation is not finished when the registry issues a number. It is finished when the entity can open a bank account, sign a lease, invoice a client, employ a person and clear a container. Those are five different requirements, and each market grants them through a different institution.
So we work backwards from what the business has to do in its first quarter. If the plan is to employ twelve people in Luanda, the social-security enrolment and the labour registrations are as much a part of the formation as the constitutive act. If the plan is to import, the customs registration belongs in the same sequence. We say which of these apply to your case before the first filing, not after.
Where formation and workforce meet
Many engagements do not wait. The team starts under our Employer of Record while the entity is being formed in parallel, and the staff transfer across afterwards with continuity of service preserved. That is one contract with one counterpart for both halves of the move, which is the reason clients ask for it.
Requirements, capital rules and processing sequences change, and they differ by activity and by province. We confirm the current position for your case before you commit rather than publish figures that may be out of date when you read them.
On one file
- Our own team in each market, not a partner network
- Documents in the local language and instrument
- Employer of Record available while the entity is formed
- Procurement and freight on the same contract
Common questions
What clients ask about establishing
Do we need a local partner or a resident director?
It depends on the jurisdiction and on the activity. South Africa requires no local shareholder for a standard private company but does require a public officer for tax; India requires a resident director; some regulated activities in Angola and Mozambique carry local participation or licensing requirements. We confirm what applies to your specific object before you commit to a structure.
Can you form the company if none of our people travel?
In most cases yes. Foreign documents need certified translation and apostille or consular legalisation, and some steps need a power of attorney in favour of a local representative. That is exactly the work our offices do; it is also where remote formations usually stall when they are handled from abroad.
How is this different from an online incorporation service?
An online service files the incorporation. It does not enrol you as an employer, open the tax activity, arrange the bank file, hold the registered office or tell you which licence your activity needs. In the markets we operate, those steps are where the time and the risk sit, and they are done in person.
Can you take over a company we already have?
Yes. We take over registered office, filings, corporate records and coordination with the accountant, and we review whether the structure and registrations match what the company is actually doing — which after a few years is often no longer the case.
Do you also handle the accounting?
We coordinate it. Bookkeeping and statutory accounts are done by local accountants and auditors we work with in each market; we hold the relationship and the calendar, so the filings and the payroll cycle stay aligned rather than arriving as separate surprises.
Begin with what the entity has to do, not with the form.
Tell us what the company must be able to do in its first quarter — employ, invoice, import, tender — and we return the structure, the sequence and the registrations that make it possible.