Checking a Cyprus company in the registry

Every Cyprus company sits in one public register, kept by the Registrar of Companies and Intellectual Property — DRCOR. If you are checking a counterparty, verifying a supplier, or confirming that the company someone just sold you actually exists, this is where you look. The basic search is free and takes a minute. What it shows, what it hides, and how to read the result is the part worth knowing.

Where to search

There are two official entry points, and they draw on the same data.

Anything else — aggregator sites, “company check” tools, paid databases — is a copy of this data, sometimes stale. Start at the source, and use aggregators only when you want a nicer interface.

What an HE number is, and why you want it

Cyprus registration numbers carry a letter prefix. A private company limited by shares gets HE — for example, HE 465393. The number is assigned at incorporation, and it stays with the company for life. The name can change; the number cannot.

That matters because Cyprus has a lot of similar company names, and a lot of companies that renamed after a change of ownership. Searching by name gives you candidates. Searching by number gives you the company. If a counterparty gives you a name but not a number, ask for the number — a legitimate company knows it, and it appears on every official document they issue.

What the free search tells you

The basic result confirms the essentials:

• Whether the entity exists at all
• Its registration number and type — company limited by shares, partnership, business name, overseas company
• The date of registration
• Its current status: active, in liquidation, struck off, dissolved
• The registered name, including previous names where they exist

That is enough to answer the two most common questions: is this real, and is it still alive.

What costs money, and what is simply not public

Deeper detail sits behind the Registrar’s fees or behind access rules.

The distinction that catches people out: the registry tells you who is on paper, not always who is behind the company. The beneficial-owner register exists — filings are due within 90 days of incorporation, within 45 days of any change, and confirmed annually between 1 October and 31 December, with penalties of €100 for the first day and €50 per day after, capped at €5,000 — but it is not open to the public in the way the name search is.

How to read what you find

A company that appears in the search is not automatically a company in good standing. Three checks separate the two.

Status field. “Active” is the baseline. “In liquidation”, “struck off” or “dissolved” ends the conversation — or changes it entirely, because a struck-off company can sometimes be restored, and that is a legal process with consequences for anyone who contracted with it in between.

Filing history. Every company files an annual return, form HE32, within 28 days of its reference date, for a €20 fee. Late filing costs €50 once and then €1 per day, capped at €150 for returns with a reference date from 2021 onward; older returns run to a €500 cap. A company several returns behind is telling you something about how it is administered.

Annual levy arrears. The €350 annual levy was abolished from 2024, but unpaid levies for 2011 to 2023 remain collectable with surcharges of 10% to 30%. If you are buying an existing Cyprus company rather than forming a new one, ask for proof the arrears are settled before you sign. This is the single most common unpleasant surprise in a shelf-company purchase — see what a ready-made company really involves.

Checking a counterparty properly

The registry is step one of four. If the amount at stake justifies the effort:

1. Confirm identity in the registry — by HE number, not by name.
2. Pull the filings — directors, shareholders, and the annual return history.
3. Ask for documents directly — a recent certificate of good standing, the certificate of incorporation, and the memorandum and articles. A company that hesitates here is answering your question.
4. Check the human layer — whether the directors and the address correspond to a real operation. Cyprus expects economic substance, and a registered office with no working footprint behind it is a fact worth knowing before you contract.

If you are checking your own company

Two reasons owners land on this page. The first is a filing worry: you are not sure whether last year’s annual return went in. Search yourself, look at the filing history, and if there is a gap, fix it before it compounds — the HE32 page explains the deadline and the penalty maths.

The second is a takeover: someone is buying your company, or you are buying theirs, and the registry entry is about to become due diligence. The clean version of that transaction has the filings current, the UBO register confirmed for the year, and no levy arrears attached.

What the registry does not replace

It confirms existence and status. It does not tell you whether a company is solvent, whether it pays its suppliers, whether its accounts are audited or overdue, or whether the person emailing you has authority to sign. For anything with real money attached, the registry is the beginning of the check, not the whole of it.

If you are registering a company rather than checking one, company formation covers the process, the fees and the timeline — and the cost page sets out every state charge in one table.