Registration of a Branch in Bulgaria

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The dynamics of modern business relations can make you aware of the necessity of doing business in different settlements. If you have such a need, you are generally faced with three options for doing business:

A) register individual “subsidiaries” of trading companies and through them to carry out your business.With this option new companies are emerging and they have separate business enterprises.The common between them is in the owner who owns them, but in the case of third parties they are completely independent subject

B) to disclose retail outlets (warehouses, shops, etc.) in the different settlements, without creating new companies and operating in them.In this situation, no new legal entity emerges – a company, the trader himself engages in legal relationships with third parties.Commercial sites are fully subordinate and dependent on the trader;

B) register a branch through which to separate the performance of part of your activity in a settlement other than that in which your company has its registered office.

The branch is a legal-organizational form for carrying out a business activity in which a trader (firm), through a relative separation of part of its activity, carries it out in a settlement other than that in which its seat is located.

In the internal relations, the branch is dependent on the trader and this dependence is manifested in different directions, for example in:

A) the lack of an independent firm, and the branch company includes the trader’s firm and the branch add-on;

(B) the branch is part of the trader’s business (and, if transferred, the branch is transferred).In disputes arising out of a direct relationship with a branch, claims are brought against the firm (as may be done at the headquarters of the branch);

B) the termination of the trader also leads to the termination of the branch (the same applies when the bankruptcy is declared);

D) the branch does not compile a stand-alone balance – the branch leads commercial books as a sole trader without compiling a separate balance sheet.(Branches of legal persons who are not traders within the meaning of this law, and the branches of foreign persons also compose a balance sheet).

Registration of a branch

Branch registration is the result of the following procedure, which includes:

1. decision on the establishment of a branch;

2. election of a branch manager;

3. Entry in the Commercial Register (TP).

The decision to register a branch is taken by the competent corporate body under the rules of the relevant commercial company:

The decision should contain a clear intention to establish a branch and its headquarters, address of management, subject of activity, manner of management.

The manager of the branch is chosen by the authority competent to decide on the establishment of a branch.The decision of election also determines the volume of its representative power.The relationship with the manager of a branch should be settled by a management contract specifying the rights and obligations of the manager.Upon the registration of the branch, the manager must present a notarized consent to be a manager and a specimen of his signature.

Upon registration of a branch of a foreign trader in the TP, the following are attached:

1. the document establishing the existence of the foreign person (if he is a legal person), his right to trade under his national law, the name of the persons representing the foreign trader according to the register in which he is registered (if any); the way of representation;

2. the decision of the foreign trader (firm) to open a branch;

3. if the subject of activity of the foreign trader’s branch is subject to an authorization regime, the relevant license or permit shall apply;

4. the memorandum, the contract or the statutes of the foreign trader containing all amendments at the moment of filing the application for registration of the foreign merchant branch as well as a copy of the instrument of incorporation, the contract or the statutes of the foreign trader in which the personal data , other than those required by law, are deleted;

5. the authority with a notarized signature of the person who manages the branch of the foreign trader (firm);

6. the notarized consent and the specimen of the signature of the person managing the branch of the foreign trader;

7. the document (diploma, certificate of the BNB, etc.) for the professional qualification or the capacity of the manager / managers according to the requirements of a law;

8.other documents as required by law.

All documents for the registration of a branch of a Bulgarian or a foreign company are filed in the Commercial Register in Bulgarian.Documents may also be presented in any of the official languages ​​of the European Union.In this case, the documents shall be submitted together with a translation into Bulgarian.The translation of official documents is done by an interpreter to a company that has signed a contract with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on the grounds of Art.2a, para.2 of the Regulations on Legalizations,

Certification and Translation of Documents and Other Papers.The fact that the translator was registered with a company that had signed a contract with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, shall be certified by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with the signature of the translator or an explicit certificate together with a statement by the translator that he has not been removed from the list at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In the event of a discrepancy between the text of the document and the translation into Bulgarian, the translation is in Bulgarian.

Article supplied by International law office D.Vladimirov & Partners