There is no need for Exxon to be incorporated in Guyana

Jan 15, 2018 Letters

Dear Editor,
Please permit me to refer to an article in the Sunday edition of your newspaper headlined “Major oil Companies operating in Guyana did not even bother to incorporate domestic branch.”
The contents of the article appear to disclose some confusion or perhaps miscomprehension about the difference between the registration of a branch of an external company and the incorporation of a subsidiary referred to in your article as “domestic company”.
Further difficulty appears to have been encountered in relation to the requirements of the law for incorporation of an entity you describe as “domestic branch.”
A branch office is not a separate legal entity from the parent company or corporation. It is the presence of the parent within the jurisdiction, the process of registration ensures the legal presence of the parent in Guyana. It is the most direct and proximate legal presence of the external company in Guyana.
Incorporation of a company, on the other hand, is effected by the incorporation of a separate and distinct legal entity known as a limited liability company in Guyana. This applies where a subsidiary is incorporated.
Subsidiaries are not necessarily wholly owned by their parent and the laws make no such requirement.
The concept of “incorporation of a domestic branch” referred to in your article appears to have confused the direct presence of the parent by registration of the parent as an external company with that of the incorporation of a subsidiary of the parent.
The law does not contemplate or consider the incorporation of a branch domestic or otherwise. There is nothing amphibian about this. It’s either a mammal or a reptile. It cannot be both.
Your article asserts, “It is worth noting that none of these three entities have incorporated a domestic company and each has a registered office at the address 62 Hadfield and Cross Streets, the same address as Hughes Fields and Stoby”.
This statement you attribute to a qualified lawyer and accountant as an expert in this field.
Perhaps it has escaped the attention of your expert that all branches of external companies are required by law to have registered agents and offices in country.
Most external companies nominate their Attorneys as the registered agents for myriad reasons including but not limited to the ease of effecting service of court process on the principal.
Nothing here that is not fit and proper.
I am not unaware the offices of your expert serve this purpose for several overseas companies.
Yours sincerely,
C.A. Nigel Hughes

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