The Differences Among an Exempt Private Limited Company, a Private Limited Company, and a Public Limited Company in Singapore

Choosing which business structure to adopt when incorporating a company in Singapore is indeed a challenging start for every business owner in Singapore, especially if these business structures exhibit their own advantages and disadvantages.

This in-depth discussion will help you compare the exempt private limited company, private limited company, and public limited company among each other—mainly in terms of the filing of requirements, annual compliance, shareholder policies, the filing of accounts and XBRL, and audit.

The filing of requirements for a private limited company is slightly stringent as the shares of this business structure are owned by a small or large corporate entity. A private limited company must also annually file its financial results to ACRA in XBRL format.

When it comes to a public limited company, its company shares are offered to the public in exchange for money. Therefore, the strictest policies need to be applied for this business structure. It must submit a prospectus with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) first before offering money to the public, if it plans to get listed. Audit of the accounts is compulsory and filing of accounting results with ACRA is also mandatory.

Business owners will most likely avoid choosing the public limited company as their business structure due to its strict and costly compliance requirements, as well as its company auditor and company secretary requirements. Between the exempt private limited company and private limited company, we highly encourage you to choose the exempt private limited company due to its simple compliance requirements and exemptions.

If you are a foreign business owner planning to incorporate a company in Singapore, and can not avoid corporate shareholding, then the private limited company would be the most suitable option for you.