Everything you need to know about Singapore Branch Registration

As we all know, Singapore holds the list of world’s major commercial hubs. If we talk about Singapore Company Formation, the task seems a bit daunting, thus it only seems profitable for foreign companies to extend their business in this beautiful city and give a serious thought to Singapore Branch registration. However, there a few rules to be followed to setup a branch in Singapore.

Guidelines to Setup a Branch Office in Singapore

• First of all, even though a registered branch is a non-legal entity, you cannot play around with the company name. In simpler words, the branch name and the parent company name should be the same.

• Secondly, the administration and management staff must have a minimum of two local members. For instance, one can appoint a nominee director to manage the company. These two staff members can be adults (i.e. should have crossed at least 18 years of age) and should either be Permanent Singapore Resident or Singapore Citizen or a relevant Employment and/or Dependent Pass holder.

• The shareholders depend completely on the parent company’s constitution. The company is also free to appoint a nominee shareholder in case the owner wishes to stay anonymous. The company’s structure, overall events and activities as well as the shareholders however are controlled by the ‘MAA- Memorandum and Articles of Association’ of the parent company.

• The annual general board meetings are also conducted as per the laws of the country to which the parent company belongs. The submission of overall account information (audited and otherwise) of the branch office however needs to be made to both ACRA as well as the head-office.

Timeline and Procedures

The formalities for branch registration usually includes two procedures – ‘Name Approval’ and ‘Entity Registration’, which are mostly completed within a time frame of two days in the presence of all the necessary and required documents.