The easiest way to add a shareholder into your Estonian company structure

Are you planning to involve investors in your Estonian company and wondering how to do it?

We’d like to give you an overview of ways you can distribute shares, so you’d know exactly what to expect whether your investor is an e-resident or not.

What if the new shareholder doesn´t have e-Residency and you don’t want to involve the notary?

1. Do the share distribution yourself, without the notary. The requirements for this are:

• The company has fully paid 10 000€ of share capital.
• You have made an amendment to your articles of association, which approves this.
• *Note that you can only alter this change when all the shareholders have agreed upon it, majority votes won’t be enough. A notation will also be entered on the registry card of the private limited company to specify that the company removes the requirement of notarized approval when selling, redistributing or disposing of shares.
• It’s the responsibility of the company’s board members to notify the new shareholder of the business registry.

What if you don’t want to pay in the 10 000€ of share capital?

2. Increase your company’s share capital.

• The company issues new shares online.
• A digitally signed document that outlines the new share allocation must be signed only by the existing shareholders.
• This means there is no need for the new shareholder to have e-Residency as their signature is not needed.

The only time the new shareholders would need to give a signature is if the company’s articles of association demand it or the law requires it for certain decisions and don’t worry we will let you know when that is the case for you.

For example, is it enough to have the majority of votes to make decisions or do all the shareholders need to approve with their signature. Our experts at Silva Hunt will help you change the articles of association accordingly (note, that changes need to be in Estonian).

We always recommend to get e-Residency to avoid waiting in the future when it might be needed the most. For instance, if the shareholder wants to be a board member they should have e-Residency. Mainly because board members have the right to make the type of high stake decisions on behalf of the company that require giving a signature.

What if you don‘t want to increase the share capital and the new shareholder is already an e-resident?

3. Distribute shares via e-notary

• This can be done at home or by going to the Estonian embassies in Helsinki, Stockholm, Brussels, Riga, and London ( these locations have Veriff´s biometric facial recognition set up). We asked notaries what are the conditions to conduct this at home. The feedback we got was : when you want to do it at home you have to send an apostilled 
• passport copy to the Estonian notary by post.
• We help you choose an Estonian notary who provides their services via e-notary (notaries are not obliged to give services with e-notary).
• You agree on a time with the notary to do the remote authentication.
• Log in to the self-service portal with your e-residency card and choose an embassy and a time.

The notary fee for conducting an act by using remote authentication is 24 euros (includes VAT).

This option will be extended to other embassies in the future.

More details on remote authentication can be found here.

So to conclude, it is possible to get new shareholders on board without them needing e-Residency. We can help you pick the best solution for you and assist you on the way. Contact us for further info here.