GMBH: LIGHT AND ULTRALIGHT

[BIZ/GOV; Cleves, June 13]
GmbH, a German corporate form for a private limited liability company is suffering from competition with the recently-introduced private limited liability company, Ltd, familiar in the UK and gaining strength in the EU. As a consequence, Germany is introducing new more competitive corporate forms.

The “light” form requires a standardized memorandum and reduced initial capital at EUR 10,000 -without notarial intervention. The “ultra-light” version requires the same amount of initial capital, but only requires EUR 1 to be paid up; consequently, there is an annual requirement to build up reserves of 25% of the profits up to EUR 10,000. This latter version is called ‘Unternehmensgesellschaft’ and the limited liability has to be noted as ‘haftungsbeschraenkt’. The enabling legislation will be implemented in the course of 2008.
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