Highest Bidder to Win Administration of Commerce Registry

The Commerce Registry is an organization with national jurisdiction. Its role is to regulate and guarantee the exercise of commerce. Supreme Decree 25,960 dictates that the registry must hand over the administration of its main functions to a private entity by way of public bidding in a concession process.

The pertinent functions are:

• authorizing the registration of different business associations that are legally constituted under domestic laws and corporations or partnerships regulated by the Civil Code, and exercising control over them (with the exception of financial and insurance entities, which are regulated by a specialized institution);

• granting and renewing mandatory registration cards to individuals and legal entities that engage in commercial activities;

• registering acts of commerce, contracts and commercial documents (including joint ventures contracts);

• approving company bylaws (including any modifications) as well as liquidations, transformations and mergers;

• registering special contracts or any other documentation that concerns commercial acts; and

• certifying the legal validity of all documents, contracts, acts of commerce, ledgers and other information that is subject to registration.

The registry will remain under the supervision of its national director. One function that the registry will maintain is the right to impose sanctions upon any person or entity that (i) engages in commercial activities without the aforementioned registration or (ii) does not register acts of commerce, contracts and commercial documents.

For further information on this topic please contact Ricardo Indacochea at Indocochea & Asociados, Abogados by telephone (+591 3535 3456) or by fax (+591 358 1200) or by e-mail ([email protected]).