Bulgaria’s Govt Moves to Strengthen Legal Protection of Company Ownership

The Bulgarian government has adopted new measures to thwart attempts to steal ownership of domestically-registered companies in a bid to boost investor confidence and enhance the rule of law.

The measures, which will be introduced through changes to the Commercial Law, have been proposed by Justice Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva and were adopted by the cabinet at its regular weekly meeting on Wednesday.

In addition to the existing notarised verification of signatures, a notarised verification of the contents of relevant documents will be required to change company managers, transfer ownership of companies and shares in them, and sell real estate assets held by corporate entities. The procedure aims to increase security of bona fide third parties exercising their rights, the Justice Ministry said in a statement.

Officials at the Registry Agency will be required to check the certified documents against the electronic system of the Notary Chamber, to which they will be granted access.

Notarised verification of signatures and the contents of documents will be needed to register decisions of general shareholders’ meetings of limited liability companies related to changes in ownership structure, distribution of profits, changes in capital, election of a company CEO, as well as purchases and sales of real estate assets or property rights associated with them, according to the statement.

Under the proposed legislative amendments, the Registry Agency will be responsible for damages to individuals and companies caused by unlawful actions or omissions of registration officials.

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