A vessel may be registered in Cyprus if more than one half of the shares of the ship are owned by a Cypriot or by a Cypriot corporation having its registered office in the Republic or by an offshore company in which the controlling interest is vested in Cypriots (physical persons).
Any foreigner ship owner who wishes to register a vessel under the Cyprus flag needs to form a Cyprus Shipping Company in order to acquire the vessel in its name or bareboat charter the ship.
Usually the type of Cyprus ship owning company is limited by shares and has a nominal capital, usually CY£1.000 divided into 1.000 shares of CY£1 each.
The main types of vessel registration in Cyprus are provisional, permanent and parallel registration.
Vessel Registration and Age Limit Ships that comply with the provisions contained in the merchant shipping legislation and the circulars of the Department of Merchant Shipping may be registered in Cyprus provided their age is not exceeding 15 years. Further conditions apply to ships over 15 years of age depending on the type of ship and its Gross Tonnage.
PROVISIONAL AND PERMANENT REGISTRATION
It is advisable that ship owners have their ship provisionally registered first in order to gain time during which they will be able to complete the administrative formalities for permanent registration. This can be done so provided that at the time of registration the vessel is situated at a port outside the Republic and it was not a Cypriot ship.
The permanent registration of a provisionally registered vessel must be effected within 9 months from the date on which the ship was provisionally registered.
PARALLEL REGISTRATION
Parallel (bareboat) registration of vessels is possible according to the internationally accepted bareboat registration which can be 'Parallel-in' registration and 'Parallel-out' registration. The ship owner has a choice of more than 20 states with compatible legislation.
Parallel-in Registration
If the Minister of Communications and Works approves then a foreign flag vessel on bareboat charter to a Cyprus shipping company can be registered in 'parallel' under the Cyprus flag for a period, usually 2 years. This period is renewable and the deletion of the registration in the foreign register is not required.
Parallel-out Registration
Cypriot ships may be bareboat chartered to a foreign person or company and registered 'parallel' in a foreign register for the duration of the charter party in order to allow the financing of a ship and her mortgaging under the Cyprus flag and her registration in a foreign registry through a bareboat charter arrangement for a period of 3 years maximum. Such a period is renewable if the conditions imposed on first registration continue to apply.
Like above, the Minister of Communications and Works has to give its approval.
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