We advise you to be cautious when buying bearer shares of Swiss stock corporations after 1 May 2021. It could be that these no longer have any value nor any resulting rights due to the legal conversion into registered shares.

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During the last ten years, the Republic of Serbia has dramatically improved the country’s legal framework for foreign investors. This is largely driven by two things: (1) making the incorporation of companies a relatively easy process and (2) the providing of significant stimulation from the State in the form of investor incentives.

What’s more, adding to investment appeal has been the meaningful expansion of markets where products produced in Serbia can be placed under favourable conditions regardless of the origins of the capital, the founder or the financier of the project.

Starting your company

Registering companies in Serbia, especially limited liability companies (the “LLC”), is quite simple and fast. Namely, there are no restrictions on the number of founders, the number of stakeholders, the number of mutual relations and the manner of placement of funds.

The law allows the investor(s) to independently regulate the status of the company, without significant restrictions and with a minimum initial capital of 1 Euro, bearing in mind strict adherence to measures related to the prevention of terrorism and extremism. In this manner, there is a special register in which the authentic owners must be entered, which is not available to third parties, but only to the founders and the bank holding the company’s business accounts.

While LLCs are formed with relative ease, joint-stock companies require somewhat more complicated procedures, which includes a minimum capital of 25,000 Euros and appropriate documents submitted to the stock exchange, as well as the obligation to appoint a broker.

State-driven incentives

In relation to the incentives provided by the Serbian state to investors, each year a special regulation is adopted which governs the number of incentives, taking into account the amount of investment, the number of employees and the region in which it is invested.

Monetary incentives apply to each job and can be up to 10,000 Euros per job, depending on the region, and reach upward of 10% of the amount of the investment. Projects worth more than 200 million Euros, or those of special importance for the Republic Serbia, will come with additional negotiations on the number of incentives and can be realized in amounts higher than the standard.

What you can look forward to

In the immediate future, we can expect new regulations to further encourage foreign-investment, particularly with the effects of the global economic situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

To date, Serbia has granted significant relief to existing companies, including postponing the payment of taxes and contributions for 2021 and paid the amount of minimum wages for all employees.

What’s more, the state has made way for the possibility of interest-free borrowing from the Development Fund and agreed upon special credit arrangements with commercial banks in which the state will take a guarantee of up to 80% of the loan value.

Products coming out of Serbia

It should be noted that the overseas market, in terms of Serbian product placement, is extremely large. This is the result of bilateral agreements made between the Russian Federation, Belarus, Kazakhstan, the European Union, USA, Turkey, Australia and Japan, as well as the Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA) and European Free Trade Association (EFTA) agreements, which altogether allow Serbian goods to be exported to these countries without paying taxes.

Goods of Serbian origin are considered to be goods that have a share of 51% of Serbian raw materials or invested labour, technology or other parameters that are provided depending on the type of product.

There are fifteen customs zones in the Republic of Serbia, with the fact that the existing customs zones can be extended to neighbouring territories covered by one customs administration, and in that sense, it is possible to work in the zones in compliance with European regulations.

With steady economic growth and an increasing level of foreign investment, Serbia has grown into one of the premier investment locations in Central and Eastern Europe. 

This content appears as a courtesy of Law Office Kosic, a proud member of the China Collaborative Group (CCG Association). It is informational in nature and does not constitute legal advice or establish an attorney-client relationship between you and its author, publisher or any member of CCG. For more information related to its content, please visit www.kosiclaw.co.rs

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Last month the CCG Association held its ordinary general assembly meeting in Bordeaux, France to address a number of important intra-group initiatives to be launched during the 2020 calendar year. As a multicountry association of legal, labour and tax advisors, we provide companies and executive-level decision-makers with cross-border professional solutions that help businesses thrive worldwide. 

The GA also brought about the approval of four new member firms to the association. They include Velloza Advogados Associados of Brasil, Dimitrov and Partners Law Firm of Bulgaria, Kosic Law Office of Serbia and Equitas Legal Practitioners of Zambia, all who will represent their respective countries in CCG. 

Chief among CCG’s forward initiatives is our  2020 Action Plan for enhancing the group’s profile via an energetic marketing and communications program. Having officially launched in November of 2018, this year will bring an aggressive push to further to position our group as an emerging global professional services association.

The action plan involves both online and in-the-field marketing activities, largely driven by expanded content marketing created and published to provide investors with valuable, relevant and consistent information addressing both global and local corporate matters. 

The latter will include working to grow CCG’s social media presence, both to inform and highlight the group’s mission. More than this, we will expand our involvement in international fairs and exhibitions, trade shows, knowledge seminars and local member-hosted ad hoc gatherings. 

CCG is a believer in the unique value of locally hosted gatherings. These events are solely intended to inform and educate decision-makers about the current state of cross-border investment and its related corporate aspects, particularly in relation to the China and the Belt & Road initiative and China inbound and outbound investment opportunities.

Our small-scale gatherings allow for a more intimate discussion on across-the-board global business matters. Client comfort is paramount to CCG’s mission, and the association believes this to be one of the true touch-points that make a difference in successful outcomes for clients.

With its fundamentally unique service model, CCG caters to large, medium and small clients with a full range of custom-tailored services. As a CCG client, you enjoy timely, first-hand knowledge from your local advisor that includes key information from the parts of the world that your business touches. Such knowledge allows you to stay ahead of the game in decision-making matters that affect your company. 

More than just legal know-how from country-to-country, the key to CCG’s success is providing local clients with expert global advice in their native language from those with an understanding of both their culture and that of their business counterparts. This ensures a level of clarity and comfort across all our services – both at home and abroad – that smooths decisions along. 

To serve our mission, CCG is committed to a genuinely collaborative effort, one driven by proactive solutions that employ a dedicated, culturally-aware approach where we work locally to achieve global results.

RG

The China Collaborative Group (CCG association) is a multicountry association of business, legal and tax advisors. The group provides entrepreneurs and other corporate decision-makers with cross-border solutions that help businesses thrive worldwide. Please visit our homepage at www.theccgway.com.

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