Cyprus Stock Exchange’s Emerging Market Listed Cyprus companies ideal for any type of project

International investors aiming to invest globally in any type of investment (Equity or bond trading, property and others) now have an opportunity to conduct their business in an efficient way by choosing to register a public company in Cyprus and subsequently list the company on the Cyprus Stock Exchange’s Emerging Companies Market through simplified procedures and very reasonable costs.

Eurivex, a regulated Cyprus investment firm, is an authorized Nominated Advisor (Nomad) to help facilitate the listing of foreign companies on the Cyprus Stock Exchange’s Emerging Companies Market (CSE/ECM).

All the above can be done through Cyprus registered companies, with their bank accounts, Boards and registered offices in Cyprus. The investors in the listed Cyprus companies which list on the Cyprus Stock Exchange’s Emerging Companies Market will get to benefit from the low taxation rate of 10% applied on net profits in Cyprus, no withholding tax on dividends declared to non-residents, plus the double taxation avoidance treaties that Cyprus has signed with more than 45 countries including the US, Canada, Germany, UK, France, Italy, Spain as well as with Russia, India, China, Qatar and the UAE to name a few.

For the double taxation benefits to apply, the majority of Board of Directors should be Cyprus resident.

A Cyprus based public company listed on the Cyprus Stock Exchange’s Emerging Companies Market is also ideal for thousands of Russian owned Cyprus private firms, which were used extensively to purchase property in Russia. Following the agreement on the amendment to the Russia-Cyprus Double Tax Treaty, which now awaits parliamentary ratification before implementation, Russia will impose a capital gains tax of 15% on capital appreciation from property investments on all companies, with the exception of publicly listed ones. The Cyprus Stock Exchange is a recognized stock exchange by the Russian tax authorities.

If the new issue is under EUR 2.5 mln value, there is no need to submit prospectus, with the listing on the Cyprus Stock Exchange’s Emerging Companies Market possible through Admission Document that will be prepared by the listed company’s Nominated Advisor (Nomad). If the new issue is more than EUR 2.5 mln in value, a prospectus needs to be submitted to the Cyprus Securities & Exchange Commission (CySEC) for approval before the listing on the Cyprus Stock Exchange’s Emerging Companies Market is completed.

Advantages of listings on Emerging Market of Cyprus Stock Exchange

– A listed company on a eurozone exchange

– Public Company is essentially a Holding Company qualifying for all double taxation benefits

– Company is entitled to engage in all types of investments according to Board of Directors decisions

– Beneficial owners can raise up to EUR 2.5 mln funds through very simple procedures

– Listed company can raise money through private placement of shares before or after listing

– Company can be used to acquire other companies, either by cash or through share exchange

– Major shareholders can pledge their shares in listed company to their bank and secure better pricing since they are pledging higher quality collateral

– No minimum daily volume requirement, hence no need to do fictitious trades

– No minimum share dispersion requirement, which means beneficial owner can hold 100% of the shares

– No minimum or maximum market capitalization restriction requirement, which means even small companies with a market capitalization of EUR 50.000 can list on the Cyprus Stock Exchange’s Emerging Companies Market

– Very reasonable costs, both to set-up and maintain the listing on the Cyprus Stock Exchange’s Emerging Companies Market.

The Cyprus Stock Exchange’s Emerging Companies Market is ideally placed to allow companies to operate in a listed environment but at the same time keep their costs under control.

Eurivex provides best online forex trading services along with an award winning MT4 Trading Platform. Know more about our services at www.eurivex.com

Disclaimer:

Shavasb Bohdjalian is an approved Investment Advisor and CEO of Eurivex Ltd., a Cyprus Investment Firm, authorized and regulated by CySEC, license #114/10. The views expressed above are personal and do not bind the company and are subject to change without notice. Investing in markets and trading on leverage is highly risky and it may not be suitable to all investors since it carries a high degree of risk and you can lose more than your initial investment.

 

 

Startup a forex hedge fund in record time – Perfectly legal and under Eurozone Jurisdiction

Successful traders managing to beat the market and with proven track record should seriously consider starting up their own forex/commodity or equity hedge funds, attract money from other investors and perhaps become the next billionaires as opposed to setting up a forex brokerage or an investment firm dealing in equity, bonds or forex.

Suppose you are the successful trader and you can approach and raise money from a small group of investors who trust your track record, but you are frightened by the regulatory hurdles, since we all know that even in the least developed markets, becoming involved in the financial industry and then attempting to raise money is a tough and time consuming process, which in most cases kills the entrepreneur spirit.

Should you give up? Definitely no, because we have the solution for your needs and we can get you up and running in record time, in a perfectly legal way and under EU jurisdiction allowing you to raise money from investors and managing your affairs through a flexible and tax friendly environment. Here is how it works.

A Private Fund or in legal jargon, a variable capital International Collective Investment Scheme (ICIS) will be set up based in Cyprus, which essentially means when investors enter the Fund with money, the company issues them with units and when they redeem their units and exit the Fund, those units are cancelled.

It has to be noted that the investment objectives, the composition of the owners, directors, entry and exit fees and other conditions, repayment clauses as well as administrative costs will be included in the Offering Memorandum (OM), which is essentially the legal document through which an investor enters or exits the ICIS.

The supervisor and regulator of ICIS in Cyprus is the Central Bank of Cyprus, a eurozone member central bank.

In order to setup the Fund or the ICIS, the minimum requirement is for the promoters to provide at least one shareholder who will inject the minimum capital of EUR 50.000 or USD 70.000 and will become the founding member holding the voting shares and thus absolute control, if they so wish. Other investors may be non-voting.

The ICIS also requires at least two competent directors (one of whom is preferable to be Cyprus resident for the Fund to qualify for tax benefits), a reputable Custodian Bank which will hold the assets and an independent Administrator firm which will calculate the Net Asset Value of the Fund, based on which investors will enter or exit. A regulated fund management company (such as Eurivex) may act as the overall fund manager who will then outsource the actual management to the specialist manager. Eurivex will also make sure that the EU’s Markets in Financial Instruments (MiFID) directives are applied and the Fund Manager is managing the fund according to the OM clauses.

Once the ICIS is set up, the promoters are allowed legally to approach and raise money from up to 100 investors globally and without limitation on the amount. If the Fund wants to raise money from more than 100 investors, then it stops becoming a private fund and needs to pass other procedures and become a mutual fund. The fund raising is done based on the Offering Memorandum clauses and by following strict Know-Your-Customer (KYC) and abiding by the EU’s Anti-Money Laundering (AML) rules, under Eurivex supervision and guidance.

The whole procedure is very simple and will be completed in less than 3 months. Eurivex has teamed up with the right partners to offer complete packages from how the ICIS is registered, preparing the OM, processing the application through the Central Bank, finding the non-executive Cyprus resident directors and professional firms and helping support the smooth operation of the ICIS.

By having a Cyprus based ICIS, you also get to benefit from the multiple tax advantages that Cyprus offers. The main ones are that Cyprus has the lowest corporation tax rate in Europe at 10% applied on net profits after deducting expenses, there is no capital gains tax and there is no withholding tax on dividends declared to non-residents of Cyprus by the ICIS. In most cases, dividends received from Cyprus can be repatriated back home because of the extensive double tax avoidance treaties signed by Cyprus with 50 countries including US/Canada/UK/Germany/France/Italy as well as Russia/India/Ukraine/China to name a few.

The fees for setting up and annual maintenance of an ICIS are also very competitive and reasonable. Setting up fees are about EUR 12.000 with the other costs (custodian bank, administrator, fund manager) costing about EUR 25.000 annually or 1-2% applied on the NAV of the Fund, plus external auditor and director fees. The fees are significantly lower than those applied in Luxembourg and Ireland, two other popular destinations for funds in the EU.

Disclaimer:

Shavasb Bohdjalian is an approved Investment Advisor and CEO of Eurivex Ltd., a Cyprus Investment Firm, authorized and regulated by CySEC, license #114/10. The views expressed above are personal and do not bind the company and are subject to change without notice. Investing in markets and trading on leverage is highly risky and it may not be suitable to all investors since it carries a high degree of risk and you can lose more than your initial investment.

Website : www.eurivex.com Email : Shavasb@eurivex.com

Capital protected forex products, how safe are they?

An increasing number of investors looking to play the highly volatile forex market are choosing to invest in capital protected schemes, which at least protect the original capital invested. With the forex market see-sawing in wild swings, making money is becoming more and more difficult. There are also groups of investors such as pension funds, life insurance companies and pensioners who can ill-afford to bear capital losses but still wish to have some kind of exposure to risky assets in commodities, forex, and stock indices.

That is why an increasing number of forex investment firms, forex hedge funds or even forex startups are offering capital protected products to attract investors. Here is how the scheme works.

The bulk of the money raised from investors, about 92-95% is placed in zero coupon bonds, with the objective that at the end of the period, the total will amount to at least 100 or equal to the original sum invested.

The remaining 5-8% is then invested in purchasing options so that in the event that the underlying asset appreciates or depreciates in line with the investment objective of the fund, the investors will receive the percentage gain of that particular market moving in their direction. In such a positive return, the investor will get the proceeds of the maturing bonds, 100, plus the positive return earned on the profit generated on the options.

If on the other hand, the market goes against the underlying investment, the options expire worthless and there is no additional loss on the investment. This means the investors get back their money as the maturing bonds expire.

The main risk is for the bond issuer defaulting. As with all capital protected schemes, the issuer does not take responsibility if the company whose bonds have been purchased goes bust. The risk is always with the investor.

For this reason, investors are strongly recommended to diversify their investments and select a variety of investments, so that even if the underlying bonds in a capital protected scheme default, the rest of their investments will be safe.

Unfortunately, the investor cannot instruct his forex broker or forex fund manager to apply stop loss protection since the capital protected products are tailor made for specific periods and will benefit if the underlying asset moves in the direction stated when the original investment is made.

Disclaimer:

Shavasb Bohdjalian is an approved Investment Advisor and CEO of Eurivex Ltd., a Cyprus Investment Firm, authorized and regulated by CySEC, license #114/10. The views expressed above are personal and do not bind the company and are subject to change without notice. Investing in markets and trading on leverage is highly risky and it may not be suitable to all investors since it carries a high degree of risk and you can lose more than your initial investment.

Website : www.eurivex.com Email : Shavasb@eurivex.com

Is it time to invest in Cyprus stocks?

With major Cyprus blue chips having lost more than 50% of their value during the last two years, it is not uncommon to encounter people asking around if the time is right to invest in Cyprus stocks.

As an authorized investment advisor employed at a regulated Cyprus Investment Firm, which among others also does forex white label solutions, naturally I refrain from expressing my views in public, since based on clearly defined rules, all regulated firms first make sure that the advise and service they intend to provide to their clients is suitable to their needs. In order to determine this before we offer any opinion to our clients, they need to pass a number of tests to determine their knowledge of markets, investment objectives, risk profile, expectations, degree of diversification and other details that are necessary before one can express an opinion.

But there are a number of general rules that one may follow which over the long term can protect and give good returns.

One of the first rules for investing is never invest with money that you cannot lose. It makes a huge difference if as an investor you shall need the money in two months time to pay for your child’s tuition fees or if the money you are investing is excess capital that will not be needed for a long time.

When investing in stocks, its best to invest in major, well known stocks that are likely to withstand the crisis and in some instances, even if they run into trouble, because of their size, the government of that nation rushes to their rescue.

Then comes the question of whether or not the company in which you wish to invest is operating in an environment where there is growth or economic stagnation. After hitting a bottom in 2008-09, major developed economies have been growing at very satisfactory paces helped by cheap money offered by various central banks around the globe.

It is true that in Cyprus, during the past two quarters, the country recorded above expectation growth, but major Cyprus blue chips also have extensive operations in Greece, which unfortunately is bleeding.

Perhaps the most important element for a long term investor is whether the company in which you are investing pays a dividend, and if that dividend is rising and generated from surplus cash flow.

The dividend factor is very important since if you buy stocks that are trading at 8 to 10 times earnings, or are trading close to book-value, then the chances of capital gains over the long term improves.

But the dividend growth element is very essential. Because if you know that the company has a track record of increasing its dividends, you can reinvest and collect more dividends.

This is the practice known as “compounding.” It’s the safest, surest, best way to build wealth in the stock market.

I believe every investor can answer if the time is right to invest in Cyprus blue chips if they subject the major Cyprus stocks to the above questionnaire.

Disclaimer:

Shavasb Bohdjalian is an approved Investment Advisor and CEO of Eurivex Ltd., a Cyprus Investment Firm, authorized and regulated by CySEC, license #114/10. The views expressed above are personal and do not bind the company and are subject to change without notice. Investing in markets and trading on leverage is highly risky and it may not be suitable to all investors since it carries a high degree of risk and you can lose more than your initial investment.

Cyprus ICIS structures offer best solution for raising finance

The International Collective Investment Schemes (ICIS) or in layman’s terms, Private Funds, are probably one of the best vehicles through which promoters may raise money from up to 100 investors worldwide and at the same time offer such investors a great deal of protection, with respect to safety of assets, valuations and that the company is operating under EU laws.

Cyprus is increasingly becoming a popular base where many ICIS formations are structured, since it has the unique advantage of providing an EU framework combined with all the tax advantages as well as very competitive rates.

The most popular ICIS structures made from Cyprus are the variable capital ones, whereby when there is demand from investors to subscribe to the shares or units, the capital increases as the new shares/units are issued, and when investors exit the company, the shares/units are canceled.

The original shareholders have the added advantage of subscribing to voting shares, while offering non-voting shares to new investors. As stated previously, the only limitation of an ICIS is that it can only raise money from up to 100 investors. Once it passes the 100 mark, then it is treated like a public fund and has to go through a different registration and management process.

At the moment, the supervision and regulation of ICIS is done by the Central Bank of Cyprus, while in other EU countries, the task is undertaken by the equivalent of the Cyprus Securities & Exchange Commission in member states.

So for the promoters, or those wishing to raise money, an ICIS is extremely advantageous since there is no restriction on how much money can be raised or in what type or types of assets, the money will be invested, provided that the objectives of the funds, where it will invest, etc. are clearly stated in its business plan submitted to the Central Bank of Cyprus in the Offering Memorandum (OM), which is the document through which the ICIS raises money from investors.

The OM will also clearly state how an ICIS accepts money (on monthly, quarterly, semi-annually and so on) and under what terms and conditions investors may exit out of the fund, offering a lot of flexibility for the company.

An ICIS however offers a lot of protection to investors. All the assets are placed under a reputable Custodian Bank, based in Cyprus or abroad, which holds the assets on behalf of all investors. This means the promoter cannot run away with the assets or do as he pleases. All ICIS should also have an independent Administrator, based in Cyprus, which will calculate the Net Asset Value of the ICIS on which shares/units will be purchased and sold and it will also issue/redeem the units.

A regulated firm, with portfolio management license (such as Eurivex) also acts as the overall fund manager to make sure that the actual investments are made according to Board of Directors decisions and defined in OM, that the ICIS operates in full compliance with MiFID rules and make sure that the promoters accept money from investors by following the EU Know-Your-Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) rules. This means the only risk undertaken by investors is the actual risk of investment whereas in all other respects they are fully protected.

By having at least one member of the Board of the ICIS a Cyprus resident and since Eurivex, a Cyprus Investment Firm is the manager of the company, this will allow the ICIS to qualify for all the Cyprus double taxation advantages signed with more than 45 countries, since it is proven beyond doubt that “effective management” of the ICIS is carried out from Cyprus.

So, a Cyprus ICIS offers protection to investors (assets with custodian bank, valuation made by independent Administrator and overall fund management by regulated firm), it also gives the promoters the legal framework through which to raise money and invest in any project in the world (it has to be stated in OM), but it also qualifies for all the tax advantages that Cyprus offers.

Disclaimer:

Shavasb Bohdjalian is an approved Investment Advisor and CEO of Eurivex Ltd., a Cyprus Investment Firm, authorized and regulated by CySEC, license #114/10. The views expressed above are personal and do not bind the company and are subject to change without notice. Investing in markets and trading on leverage is highly risky and it may not be suitable to all investors since it carries a high degree of risk and you can lose more than your initial investment.

Website : www.eurivex.com Email : Shavasb@eurivex.com