Companies

The range of purposes for which a Cayman company can be used include investment, sales processing, trading, shipping operations, stock dealing, real estate holding, the ownership and licensing of patents, international financing, general holding companies, structured financing, and aircraft financing.

Companies can be formed with one shareholder and with no minimum capitalisation requirements (except for exempted limited duration companies).

Client privacy is protected by the fact that the Registry of Companies can only release to third parties the name and type of company, its date of registration, the address of the registered office and the company’s status. Disclosing any other information is prohibited, except where assistance to law enforcement agencies is required.

A company may be registered as one of four basic types under either the Local Companies (Control) Law or the Companies Law.

Resident Company (Local Company): A company carrying on business primarily in the Cayman Islands and registered under the Local Companies (Control) Law.

Non-Resident Company: A company carrying on business in the Cayman Islands only as needed to further a foreign business and registered under the Companies Law. This form of company is virtually identical to an exempted company except that a non-resident company must maintain at its registered office, available for public inspection, a register of its past and present members. A non-resident company must also report to the Registrar, annually, the names of its members, directors and of its paid-up capital amount.

Exempted Companies: Companies carrying on their activities primarily outside of the Cayman Islands and registered under the Companies Law. Within the exempted type, the following are also offered -

• Transfers by Continuation: A company with limited liability and share capital can become a Cayman Islands exempted company, provided it is incorporated in a foreign jurisdiction whose laws permit or do not prohibit the relocation of the company. The same fees apply as listed above under exempted company.
• Exempted Limited Duration Company: A company that can be treated as a partnership but whose duration must not exceed 30 years. The Government’s “one-time” registration fee and its annual fee for an exempted limited duration company are the same as those for exempted companies plus a fee of $200 for the right to use the term “LDC.”

Segregated Portfolio Company (SPC): A new and innovative approach to vessel ownership by way offered under Part XIV of the Companies Law (2004 Revision) which provides the benefits of statutory segregation of assets and liabilities into separate portfolios (cells) established within a single ‘umbrella’ company. A single SPC may own multiple vessels that may be segregated into separate “portfolios” with each possessing asset protection provisions that remove them from the general assets of the company.

Foreign Company: A company incorporated outside of the Cayman Islands may be registered in the Islands under the Companies Law and establish a place of business and carry-out business locally.