Opening a new commercial registration
This guide sets out the order of the steps for a new commercial registration in the Kingdom of Bahrain: determining the activity and legal form, reserving the trade name, notarising the incorporation documents, and meeting the licensing authority’s conditions through to the issue of the registration and its licence.
The activity first, not the name
The activity is chosen from the unified directory of economic activities, a classification in which every activity carries a code and its conditions. Everything that follows branches from that code: whether full foreign ownership is allowed in it, whether it needs a regulator's licence, what kind of commercial address it accepts, and what Bahrainisation rate the company will be held to once it starts hiring.
The legal form
The form follows the number of partners, the nature of the business and the source of the capital. Among the forms that suit trading and service activities are the company with limited liability (W.L.L.) where there are partners, the same form where the owner stands alone — Legislative Decree No. 28 of 2020 abolished the single-person company (S.P.C.) and merged it into the W.L.L. — and the branch of a foreign company where the venture extends a company already established abroad.
Capital is set by the activity and the licensing authority's conditions and recorded in the registration. There is no single figure that fits every activity, so asking about it before the activity is settled is asking too early.
Reserving the trade name
The name is reserved through Sijilat once it has been checked for conflict with an existing name and against the naming conditions. The reservation is temporary; if the remaining steps are not completed within its period it lapses and must be made again.
- Prepare more than one alternative before filing, to absorb a conflict.
- Some words are restricted or prohibited, and some require a further approval.
- The registered name is what appears on the registration, the invoices and the receipts, so it is worth choosing carefully the first time.
Address and conditions
Each activity accepts a particular kind of address: some are satisfied by an office, others require a shop, a warehouse, or a site meeting specific conditions. The registered address must match the activity, and where the two diverge the registration stalls, or the renewal does later.
Regulated activities, such as financial, health and educational services, need their regulator's approval before the registration issues. Those approvals are what lengthen the period: the usual route runs fifteen to twenty working days from complete documents, and extends where an approval is required.
Common causes of rejection
- A name conflicting with one already registered, or breaching the naming conditions.
- An activity chosen by its everyday description rather than its code, and found to be the wrong one.
- An address that does not meet the activity's conditions.
- Unattested documents for a foreign partner, or an uncertified translation.
- Starting the post-registration formalities before the registration has issued, so they are returned as premature.
This guide is a general account of the registration route. The Ministry of Industry and Commerce is the final reference for any condition or fee, and conditions may change without prior notice.
Where does opening a commercial registration begin?
With the activity. It is selected from the unified economic activities directory, which settles the ownership limits, the conditions and the licences needed; the legal form follows.
What causes an application to be refused?
A name conflicting with one already registered or breaching the naming rules, an activity whose regulator’s approval is not complete, a commercial address unsuited to the activity, or documents that are not attested.
Which legal forms are available?
The company with limited liability — the same form where the owner stands alone, since Legislative Decree No. 28 of 2020 abolished the single-person company and merged it in — and the branch of a foreign company.
What are the registration fees?
280 BHD on the ordinary route, of which 50 issues the registration and 100 licenses the first three activities. Every item is on the fees page.
Settling the activity before the registration
Send a description of the business you intend and the partners’ nationalities, and we identify the matching activity code, its ownership limits and its conditions.