- →
-
Contact Form
-
The Cyprus company register is kept under the Companies Law, Cap. 113, by the Companies Section of the Department of Registrar of Companies and Intellectual Property. It holds companies, partnerships, business names and overseas companies. The public search runs at efiling.drcor.mcit.gov.cy in Greek, English and Turkish; guidance is on companies.gov.cy.
Section 365 of Cap. 113 lets any person inspect the documents the Registrar keeps and obtain certified copies, which courts accept as equal to the originals, so a buyer needs no authority from the seller to look a company up or order its certificates. The registration number carries the prefix HE, shown on the register as ΗΕ in Greek capitals; it is not the tax number, as our guide to the company registration number explains.
A Cyprus company register search online has two levels. The basic eSearch is free and needs no account; the detailed Study File is paid, needs a CY Login account and covers everything filed from registration to the day of the search.
| Information | Free eSearch | Where else to find it |
|---|---|---|
| Name | Current name, earlier names as rows marked Previous Name | Name history in the Study File |
| Number, registration date, type, status | Shown | Certificate of incorporation; certificate of good standing |
| Registered office | Current address | History in the Study File; certificate of registered office |
| Directors and secretary | Current names | History in the Study File; certificate of directors and secretary |
| Shareholders and share capital | Not shown | Members and capital history in the Study File; certificates of shareholders and of capital |
| Charges and mortgages | Not shown | Charges registered from 2000 in the Study File; certificate that the company has no charges |
| Annual returns and filings | HE32 archive, documents filed, pending services | Financial statements filed with each return, in the company’s file |
| Beneficial owners | Not shown | The Register of Beneficial Owners, closed to the public |
Search by all or any words of a name, a sound-alike match, or the number typed as digits alone; a search with too many hits is refused until narrowed. Rows marked Name Application are not companies; a renamed company appears under each of its names, so search the earlier ones too.
Opening a company adds its subtype, private or public, the date its file was last updated, pending services and the HE32 archive. A private company’s annual return, form HE32I, goes only through e-filing and appears in the archive, which therefore shows whether returns have been kept up since the first annual return date, 18 months after incorporation.
| Status shown | What it tells a buyer |
|---|---|
| Active | On the register, with no strike-off step or winding up recorded |
| Reminder letter sent | The Registrar has written under section 327, the step before a strike-off notice; letters of 9 February 2026 chased missing returns and financial statements, now due by 31 December 2026 |
| Three month notice published | Unless cause is shown within three months, the name can be struck off and the company dissolved |
| Dissolved | No longer exists; only the court can restore a struck-off company |
| Winding Up by the Court | In liquidation under a court order |
The annual levy, due by 30 June, has its own entry in the search menu, showing the years recorded as paid. Section 327(2A)(b) allows a strike-off after a year unpaid, and on 30 September 2026 the Registrar announced that from December it will publish in the Official Gazette, for three months, every company owing the levy for any year from 2012 to 2023, then strike them off unless cause is shown.
Under paragraph 37 of the Central Bank of Cyprus directive of 2025, a Cypriot bank verifies a company against the Registrar’s certificates of incorporation, registered office, directors and secretary, and shareholders, and the Tax Department asks for the same four for a tax number. Each certificate reflects only what had been notified by its date of issue, so a late HE4 leaves the old board on it.
| Document | Online through e-filing | By hand, post or email |
|---|---|---|
| Certificates of registered office, directors and secretary, shareholders, capital, good standing, and no charges | Yes | Yes |
| Certified copy of the certificate of incorporation or of a registered charge | Yes | Yes |
| Certified copy of the memorandum and articles | Only with the incorporation application | Yes |
| Certified copy of the certificate of change of name; copies of filed forms such as an HE4 | No | Yes |
Every route is paid, by card online, and an accelerated issue can be requested. Certificates come in Greek or English, and a blank language box is among the commonest reasons a paper request is rejected; the memorandum and articles are certified only in Greek unless the company keeps a file of translations. Email requests are paid by remittance to the Central Bank of Cyprus or at a Cyprus embassy.
An electronic certificate carries an authenticity code anyone can check on the Registrar’s Confirmation of Authenticity page for 90 days, and the Certified Copies Section signs and seals it on request. Law 155(I)/2025 and the Companies Orders ΚΔΠ 282/2025 and 283/2025 provide for bilingual certificates with an electronic seal and a QR code, in use once the Registrar publishes a notification in the Official Gazette.
Beneficial owners are not on the companies register. Under Law 13(I)/2021 and the Registrar’s Directive ΚΔΠ 112/2021, the Registrar keeps a separate electronic Register of Beneficial Owners at ubo.meci.gov.cy. It records each natural person owning or controlling the company through 25% plus one share, an ownership interest above 25%, voting rights or other means of control; failing anyone, the senior managing official.
Opened to the public on 1 June 2022, it closed again when the Registrar announced on 28 November 2022 that public access was suspended, after the Court of Justice judgment of 22 November 2022 in joined cases C-37/20 and C-601/20. Competent authorities and obliged entities such as banks can still search it. Law 25(I)/2026 of 20 March 2026 grants access to anyone showing a legitimate interest in preventing money laundering and terrorist financing, limited to the owner’s name, month and year of birth, country of residence, nationality and the nature and extent of the interest, but that route has no working channel yet.
A company officer files a new owner within 45 days of the company learning of the change, and the company confirms its owners every year between 1 October and 31 December. A bank that finds the register differs from what it was told must file a discrepancy report, and the Registrar can require the company to answer within 30 days. A buyer cannot search the entry, so ask the seller for the latest filing and confirmation receipts.
We can run these checks on a ready-made Cyprus Ltd you are considering, order the certificates a bank or the Tax Department asks for, and prepare the filings after a purchase or a formation. The transfer itself, with forms HE57, HE4 and HE2 within 14 days, is set out on ready-made shelf companies in Cyprus; a new company on Cyprus company formation; the account on bank accounts for Cypriot companies. Tax and yearly duties are in our Cyprus company guide, and sanctions rules on our Cyprus page (in Russian).
Use the Organisation and Name Search at efiling.drcor.mcit.gov.cy, entering words from the name or the number without its prefix. The free result gives names, number, registration date, type, status, registered office, current directors and secretary, documents filed and the HE32 archive. Shareholders, share capital and charges need the paid Study File or a certificate.
Not in the free search, which stops at the directors and secretary. Shareholders appear in the paid Study File and in the certificate of shareholders, which anyone can order, and section 108 of Cap. 113 opens the register of members at the registered office to any person. Who stands behind them is for the beneficial owner register.
Not from the public search. Beneficial owners are held in the separate Register of Beneficial Owners, closed to the general public since the Registrar’s announcement of 28 November 2022; competent authorities and obliged entities such as banks can search it. Law 25(I)/2026 provides for legitimate interest access to a limited set of details, but no working channel exists yet.
The Registrar has written to the company under section 327 of Cap. 113, the first step towards striking it off, where a company seems not to be trading or has not filed required documents. If it does not answer and put matters right, a notice follows, and three months later the name can be struck off and the company dissolved.
Only by the court. Under section 327(7) of Cap. 113 the company, a member or creditor, or anyone harmed by its acts may apply within twenty years of the strike-off being published. The court may restore it if it was trading or it is otherwise just, and may order the missing documents filed; the company is then treated as never struck off.
Send us the name or number of a Cyprus company you are considering through our contact page, and we will explain what the register shows and what still needs checking. We also answer on Telegram and WhatsApp at +48 663 247 166.