Chetcuti Cauchi

Chetcuti Cauchi is a Valletta law firm that has been forming Maltese companies since 2002, and its company formation office is the part of the practice most founders and investors meet first. The office works through AC Capital, the firm's own corporate services provider, which holds authorisation from the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA), the island's financial regulator. Because lawyers, tax advisers and company administrators sit in the same building, a new company can be planned, registered and then run without passing the client between separate firms.

For a UK reader the appeal is simple: one team can take you from a first conversation about structure to a registered company with a bank account, and then keep it compliant year after year. It pairs the personal attention of a boutique practice with the standards expected of much larger organisations. On VisitMalta.co.uk it appears in our directory of corporate services providers in Malta.

A multidisciplinary firm founded in 2002

The practice was set up in 2002 by former Big Four tax and legal advisers who wanted a different kind of law firm, one that combined legal, tax, immigration and corporate expertise for international investors and entrepreneurs. It was Malta's first multidisciplinary law firm, and it is constituted as a civil partnership under Maltese law, trading as Chetcuti Cauchi Advocates.

In 2010 the firm moved its headquarters into Palazzo St Ursula, a seventeenth century palazzo in Valletta, and grew to a team of 75 professionals. In 2021 it built strategic relationships with tax and legal advisers abroad to handle cross-border matters, and in 2024 it relaunched its brand and website with a focus on digital access for internationally active clients. It has also run without paper since day one, reflecting a long commitment to technology.

Day-to-day leadership sits with Matthew Debono, Chief Executive Officer, and Gilbert Bonnici, Chief Finance Officer, a certified public accountant and auditor who trained with a Big Four practice.

How a Maltese company is formed

Incorporation in Malta centres on the Memorandum and Articles of Association, usually shortened to M&A, which together act as the company's constitution. The Chetcuti Cauchi team drafts this document and the supporting forms, files them with the Malta Business Registry and, once the shareholders have subscribed for their shares, the registry issues a certificate of registration.

The M&A has to record a set of essentials: the company name, whether it is private or public, the registered office and a company email address in Malta, its objects, the authorised, issued and paid up share capital, who represents the company legally and judicially, the details of the subscribers, directors and secretary, and whether the company is set up for a fixed term or indefinitely.

Timing is one of the firm's selling points. In most cases a formation can be completed within 24 to 48 hours once the documents have arrived and the legal requirements are satisfied. Due diligence documents go in alongside the incorporation papers after onboarding, share capital must be deposited or otherwise evidenced, and a registration fee is payable that rises with the share capital. The minimum share capital is €1,165 for a private company and €46,588 for a public one, and a private limited company can have between one and fifty shareholders.

For background on why companies choose Malta in the first place, our explainer on how Malta's corporate tax structure works covers the refund system in plain terms.

Running the company after registration

Formation is usually the start of a longer relationship. The firm typically begins with a tax or structuring discussion and then stays with the company's officers for its whole life, making sure filings with the Malta Business Registry go in on time. The services on offer cover company administration, company secretary work, support for directors including the provision of local directors, domiciliation (giving the company its Maltese registered address), fiduciary shareholding and mandates, help with opening bank accounts, and back office and virtual office facilities.

Redomiciliation is also handled, meaning a company registered abroad can move its registration to Malta and continue as a Maltese body corporate. That route depends on several conditions: the home country must allow companies to leave, the company's form must match one recognised by the Maltese Companies Act, its constitution must permit the move (it can be amended), it must come from an approved jurisdiction, and any outstanding registry matters must be settled first.

Some providers sell low-cost standard companies and then farm legal and accounting work out to others. At Chetcuti Cauchi administration, legal advice, banking support, accounting and tax are kept in house, with the aim of tighter coordination and quicker answers. Related practices include accounting and bookkeeping, corporate tax and estate management. Readers comparing options can also look at our page on CLA Malta's corporate and advisory services.

Who leads the corporate services team

The company formation team is led by Senior Partner Dr Priscilla Mifsud-Parker, a private client lawyer who heads the firm's Families and Wealth group and its Corporate, Trusts and Fintech group. Her focus is wealth structuring for business families and wealthy individuals, and she works with advisers in other countries to build and maintain international corporate structures.

Within the corporate services arm, Joanna Pace manages a team that sets up trusts, holding companies and trading entities in Malta and elsewhere, while Charlene Ciantar works on company set-up, corporate compliance, administration and restructuring projects. Senior Corporate Executive Matthew Casha guides clients through formation, bank account opening and ongoing compliance, and Justine Azzopardi runs client onboarding so that a new project starts smoothly. Dr Natasha Cachia, Partner for Risk and Compliance, leads the anti-money laundering and sanctions side, and Dr Charlene Mifsud leads the Corporate and Commercial team as well as property work.

Partners and managers hold roles in Malta's professional bodies, including the Executive Council of the STEP Malta branch, the Institute of Financial Services Practitioners council, the Malta Institute of Taxation, the Malta Institute of Accountants, FinanceMalta and the Chamber of Advocates. Internationally the firm belongs to the International Tax Planning Association, the International Fiscal Association and the European Family Business Network.

Tax, residence and wider legal work

The company formation office sits inside a much broader practice. The firm advises on corporate and personal tax, cross-border structuring, trusts, family offices, succession, property, employment, intellectual property, privacy, dispute resolution and sports law. Its sector work spans financial services, gaming, technology, yachting, film, pharmaceuticals and biotech, retail and manufacturing, so a company set up here can draw on specialists in its own field. Anyone looking at the gaming sector can find context in our guide to iGaming companies in Malta, and our overview of financial services in Malta explains the wider industry.

Founders who also plan to live on the island will find an immigration and global mobility team under Dr Antoine Saliba Haig and Marina Magri, covering residence programmes, citizenship and relocation, while Magdalena Velkovska directs private client tax, including non-domicile status and tax residency. Our UK guide to relocating to Malta and our guide to Malta tax for UK nationals give useful background before that conversation.

The firm's work has been ranked by Chambers and Partners and The Legal 500 in several practice areas, including commercial and corporate law and private client work.

Start-ups, community and culture

Having been a start-up itself, the firm offers legal support to new businesses at a revised rate in their early years, and its lawyers have advised the Malta Council for Science and Technology and the University of Malta on intellectual property and the patentability of new inventions.

Community work runs through the firm. Under its Gift of Time programme each department adopts up to two causes a year and gives money, time and effort to them, especially around Christmas. Pro bono legal help goes to a number of foundations and organisations, and the palazzo doubles as a gallery for Maltese artists, with part of the proceeds from sales going to local charities.

Visiting the Valletta office and getting started

The firm's registered office is on St Ursula Street in Valletta, and while that building is being refurbished clients come in through the main entrance on Merchants Street, in the heart of the capital. If you are flying in for a meeting, our guide to hotels in Valletta lists places to stay within walking distance, and our Valletta guide covers the city itself.

The firm offers a free first consultation for company formation. Prepare a short outline of what the company will do, who will own and direct it and where its business will be carried on, then use the VisitMalta.co.uk enquiry form on this page and we will pass your message to the Chetcuti Cauchi team, who will come back to you directly.