REGISTRATION FEES

The applicable fees to accompany the incorporation documents are the lodgement fee and the company registration fee. The lodgement fee is a flat rate while the company registration fee depends upon whether the company is with or without share capital, and the number of members it has. These fees are set out under Pt I and II of Sch 8 to the Companies Ordinance.

CERTIFICATE OF INCORPORATION
Upon submission of the required documents and fees the Registrar of Companies will retain and, assuming that the proposed company name is in order, register the incorporation documents (sec. 15).
Upon registration the Registrar issues a certificate of incorporation (sec. 16). The Registrar of Companies is permitted to issue certificates of incorporation with printed signatures (sec. 16(1)). By issuing a certificate of incorporation, the Registrar is in effect warranting to anyone dealing with the company that he has been satisfied with all requirements of registration and matters precedent. Current performance data shows that certificates of incorporation are normally issued fourfive days after the registration of documents, provided that all requirements are met.

COMPANY NAME
The companys name must be stated in the memorandum and:
(a) if the name is in English, with Limited as the last word of the name; (b) if the name is in Chinese, with characters of the name; and as the last four Chinese

(c) if the name is both in English and Chinese, with Limited as the last word of the name in English and as the last four Chinese characters of the name (sec 5(1)). Certain companies may obtain a licence to dispense with using the word Limited in their name. for more on obtaining a licence to omit the word Limited from a company name). Restrictions apply to the names which may be adopted by new companies.

RESTRICTIONS ON NAMES
Since companies lack a real personality it is important that adequate measures are taken to avoid the possibility of confusion between one company and another. With over 703,677 local, and 8,426 nonHong Kong companies incorporated in Hong Kong, choosing a preferred name for a new company is becoming more difficult by the day.

NAME MUST NOT BE THE SAME AS ANOTHER

When choosing a name the first priority is to ensure that it is not the same as a name which has already been registered. The Registrar of Companies will not register a company name if it is the same as any other name already appearing in the index of company names (sec 20(1)(a)). The Registrar will also refuse to register a company name if it is the same as the name of any body corporate established under an Ordinance (eg The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited; The Hong Kong China Gas Company Limited) (sec 20(1)(b)).