How to register a company in Saudi Arabia, step by step

Step 1: Choose the legal form

The Companies Law offers five forms. Most private businesses choose a limited liability company because it is simple to run and limits owners' liability. Start-ups expecting investment often prefer a simplified joint stock company, which has no minimum capital, allows share classes and lets the articles choose how it is managed. Larger businesses and those planning to list use a joint stock company. Partnerships are less common for new businesses because at least some partners have unlimited liability.

The form is easy to choose and harder to change later, so decide it with your ownership and financing plans in mind.

Step 2: Confirm the activity and, for foreign owners, register with MISA

Check that your intended activities are permitted and whether any regulator must license them. If any shareholder is foreign, the company must register with the Ministry of Investment under the Investment Law, which took effect in February 2025 and replaced the old foreign investment licence. Investment is open except for activities on MISA's excluded list.

Step 3: Reserve a trade name

The trade name must comply with the Trade Names Law, which took effect on 3 April 2025. Reservations are made electronically and last for a limited period, so reserve the name once the structure is settled.

Step 4: Prepare the articles of association

The articles set out the company's capital, ownership, management, decision-making, profit distribution and rules on transferring shares. This is the most important legal document in the process. For companies with more than one owner, a separate shareholder agreement usually sits alongside it to deal with matters the owners want to keep private, such as vesting, deadlock and exit.

Step 5: Incorporate and obtain the commercial registration

Incorporation and entry in the commercial register are completed through the Ministry of Commerce systems. Under the Commercial Register Law the business receives a single national registration; branches and additional activities are recorded under it rather than in separate registrations.

Step 6: Complete post-registration steps

After registration, a new company typically needs to:

• join the chamber of commerce;
• register with ZATCA for zakat, income tax (where there are non-Saudi owners) and VAT if it meets the threshold;
• open a bank account and record it in the commercial register;
• register with the labour and social insurance systems before hiring;
• obtain any municipal and sector licences its activities require.

Step 7: Keep the registration in good standing

Confirm the register data every year, update the register promptly when managers, capital, activities or addresses change, and keep board and partners' resolutions in order. A suspended registration can block banking and government services until it is reinstated.

Avoid concealment structures

Running a business through a Saudi national's registration so that a non-Saudi can trade without the required licence is commercial concealment, a serious offence under the Anti-Concealment Law. Foreign investors should use a properly registered structure instead.