05-Apr-2019
April 5, 2019
Written by Nasser Messaike
Sole Shareholder LLC in Lebanon
On
March 29, 2019, the Lebanese legislator issued a new law number 126
amending the previous Lebanese commercial law and the law of obligations
and contracts (the “New Law”).
The
New Law deals with many topics related to merchants, commercial books,
stocks, bankruptcy, corporations’ formalities, and other topics in this
field, however, the New Law provides a very promising step in Lebanon
where it defines the limited liability company as follows:
“A
limited liability company is a commercial company which is established
by one (1) or several shareholders whom bear the losses only according
to their share contribution in the share capital.
In the case of one (1) shareholder, such shareholder shall be called the sole shareholder, and he shall exercise all the powers that are given to the general assembly”.
We
understand from this clause that the New Law had amended the formalities
of establishing a limited liability company in Lebanon, as prior to the
New Law, establishing an LLC in Lebanon needed three (3) shareholders
at least.
It is worth noting that in case of a limited liability company which is owned by a sole shareholder, such company cannot be the sole shareholder of another company.
The
New Law has been published in the Lebanese official gazette on April 1,
2019 and shall come into force in Lebanon after three (3) months from
the date it has been published.