Albanian Limited Liability Company

ALBANIAN LIMITED LIABILITY C O M PA N Y

Images of Bank of Albania

ALBANIAN LIMITED LIABILIT Y C OMPANY The Limited Liability Company is the most common used legal form to carry out business in Albania. It can be established by one or more individuals or legal entities.

Shareholders are held responsible for losses only to the extent of their contribution to the capital.

The minimum required capital of an LLC is 100 ALL (approx 1 USD) . The capital of the company is divided into quotas and the size of each shareholder’s quota determines their rights and obligations concerning the company. It is possible for the quotas of the individual shareholders to be of unequal value.

One of the main characteristics of the ALBANIAN LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY is related to the transfer of shareholders’ quota. The transfer of quota from one shareholder to another is unrestricted but the transfer to a third party might be subject to other shareholders’ consent or pre-emption right only if the company’s Articles of Association provide for such restrictions.

The Administrators are nominated by the General Assembly of the shareholders for a period of no more than five years, which can be renewed.

The Albanian LLC can be formed by one or more persons/entities.

Ordinary decisions may be validly taken by the General Assembly of shareholders provided that a quorum representing more than 30% of the company’s shares is present in the meeting. Extraordinary decisions, such as changes to the bylaws, increase or decrease in share capital, mergers and acquisitions or distribution of profits, may be validly taken by the General Assembly of the shareholders upon a majority vote of 3⠄4 of the shareholders present in the meeting.

Shareholders cannot claim their quota back while the company is in operation. They are only entitled to receive profits in proportion to their quota, unless otherwise agreed by the shareholders.

Geography and climate Albania is situated in SouthEastern Europe, in the western part of the Balkan Peninsula. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to the east, and Greece to the south and southeast. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the west and the Ionian Sea to the southwest.

Albania has a total area of 28,748 square kilometers and has 362 kilometers of coastline. The terrain is mostly mountainous, often covered with scrub forest. The average altitude of 708 meters is about twice as high as the European average.

The coastal lowlands have a typically Mediterranean climate with warm, dry summers and mild, wet winters; the highlands have a Mediterranean continental climate.

Population and language The population of Albania, as per information from the National Statistical Institute ( I N S TAT ) a s o f 1 J a n u a r y 2 0 1 7 , i s approximately 2.9 million.

The population in urban areas is 53.5% while 46.5% live in rural areas. The capital of the country, Tirana, has a population of some 764,000 inhabitants. The average age of the population increased from 30.63 years in 2001 to 35.8 in 2013.

The population of Albania started to decline from 1990 onwards as a consequence of a massive emigration. It is estimated that around 500,000 people emigrated in the period 2001-2011.

Ethnic Albanians represent 82.6% of the population. The other recognized ethnic and cultural affiliations include Greeks with 0.9%, other 1% (Vlach, Roma (Gypsy), Macedonian, Montenegrin, and Egyptian), and unspecified 15.5%, according to statistics from the 2011 census).

Nearly 56.7% of the Albanian population adheres to Islam, Catholics comprise 10%, Orthodox 6.8%, atheist 2.5%, Bektashi 2.1%, other 5.7% and unspecified 16.2%. The country’s official language is Albanian, which is taught in schools and spoken in national institutions. The Albanian language belongs to the Indo-European language family and has its own specifics. It is spoken by approximately 7.4 million inhabitants of the eastern Adriatic coast in Albania and also in neighboring countries, principally in Kosovo, Montenegro and Macedonia. The official language was based on the northern Geg dialect at the beginning of the Albanian state until World War II, and since then has been modelled on the Tosk dialect. The most commonly spoken foreign languages in the country