You live in London, New York, Dubai or Singapore, and your French company needs money: a new investor is ready to come in, the business has outgrown its initial capital, or the bank will only extend the credit line if the equity cushion grows. Your company is a société par actions simplifiée (SAS, the flexible joint-stock company most foreign founders choose) or a société à responsabilité limitée (SARL, the limited liability company with stricter voting rules). Issuing new shares from abroad — an augmentation de capital (capital increase, the operation that creates new shares and brings fresh money or assets into the company) — looks simple on a video call: print new shares, collect the money, update the spreadsheet. French law sees it very differently. A capital increase rewrites the articles of association (statuts), so it requires a collective shareholder decision taken exactly as the articles and the statute demand; every existing shareholder holds a preferential right to subscribe that you must either respect or formally remove; contributions in kind (apports en nature, assets such as equipment, receivables or intellectual property contributed instead of cash) must be valued by an independent auditor in most cases; the cash must be deposited at a bank or with a notary within days; and the whole operation must be filed at the company register within a month. Miss one step and the increase can be annulled, the directors can be held liable, and the new investor — whose money you already spent — is treated as never having become a shareholder. The reassuring part is that the entire sequence can be run from abroad, through written consultation, electronic signatures and a French representative. This guide follows that sequence: first the decision and the subscription rights that protect you against dilution, then the payment, valuation and filing steps that make the increase irreversible, with the Paris specifics where they change the practice.

I. How do you vote a capital increase from abroad without getting diluted or blocked by your own articles?

The first question is never the money. It is who decides, by which majority, and what happens to the existing shareholders’ slice of the company. A capital increase dilutes everyone who does not subscribe: if the company has 1,000 shares and issues 1,000 new ones to an incoming investor, a founder who owned 60 percent wakes up with 30 percent unless he subscribes himself. French law surrounds this dilution risk with two layers of protection — the collective decision and the preferential subscription right — and organises them differently in an SAS and in a SARL. If you set up your vehicle with the help of our guide to choosing between an SAS, a SARL, a branch and a subsidiary in France, this is where that choice shapes the procedure. In both forms, the increase itself is a matter for the shareholders collectively, never for the president or the manager alone — no matter how urgent the investor’s deadline sounds on the phone.

A. Raising capital in an SAS from abroad: who votes, who keeps a preferential right, and how do you bring in an outside investor?

In an SAS, contractual freedom rules — but within a frame the statute imposes. The articles (statuts) decide which decisions are taken collectively and how, yet the law reserves a hard core of fundamental matters to the shareholders as a group. The key provision states that the powers normally given to extraordinary and ordinary general meetings of public companies in capital matters sont, dans les conditions prévues par les statuts, exercées collectivement par les associés, and it lists explicitly decisions en matière d’augmentation, d’amortissement ou de réduction de capital. In plain terms: a capital increase in an SAS must be decided collectively by the shareholders, following the forms and majorities the articles provide — written consultation (consultation écrite), videoconference, or physical meeting, with the majority the articles set. A president who issues new shares on his own authority, even with the best intentions and even when the money is desperately needed, acts beyond his powers and exposes the issue to annulment. From abroad, the clean method is a written consultation organised by the president strictly according to the articles’ notice periods, quorum and majority rules, with the full text of the resolutions, the subscription terms, the price and the premium sent to every shareholder in advance. Keep the proof of dispatch and the signed responses: the commercial court registry (greffe du tribunal de commerce, the clerk’s office that keeps the company register) will ask for the minutes, and a contested majority is the first thing a diluted shareholder attacks.

The second protection is the preferential subscription right (droit préférentiel de souscription, universally shortened to DPS, the right of each existing shareholder to subscribe new shares in proportion to his current holding). The statute opens with the principle: Les actions comportent un droit préférentiel de souscription aux augmentations de capital. And it details the proportion: Les actionnaires ont, proportionnellement au montant de leurs actions, un droit de préférence à la souscription des actions de numéraire émises pour réaliser une augmentation de capital. Each shareholder may subscribe, in priority, to as many new cash shares as needed to keep his percentage unchanged. This right is the anti-dilution shield of the minority shareholder — including you, if you are the foreign founder holding 40 percent while a local partner holds 60 percent and wants to bring in his own investor. The DPS can be traded or waived individually, and — crucially — it can be removed for the whole operation, but only by the shareholders themselves and only under strict conditions: the meeting that decides or authorises the increase peut supprimer le droit préférentiel de souscription pour la totalité de l’augmentation de capital ou pour une ou plusieurs tranches de cette augmentation, ruling on the basis of special reports and following the procedures the statute organises. A suppression voted without the required reports, or pushed through a consultation that did not mention it in the agenda, is annullable — and the shareholder diluted by an irregular suppression can have the whole increase cancelled years later, long after the investor’s money has been spent.

Bringing in an outsider therefore follows a precise choreography in an SAS. First, check the articles for any approval clause (clause d’agrément) covering new subscriptions: many SAS articles submit the entry of any new shareholder to the consent of the existing ones, and that clause applies to subscribers of new shares as much as to buyers of existing ones. Second, decide the fate of the DPS before fixing the investor’s stake: either each existing shareholder exercises, transfers or waives his rights individually (collect the written waivers), or the collective decision suppresses the DPS for the operation with the full report procedure. Third, set the issue price — nominal value (valeur nominale, the face value of each share stated in the articles) plus any share premium (prime d’émission, the extra amount new shareholders pay above nominal value, which protects existing shareholders against dilution of value). The premium is where foreign founders lose money without realising it: issuing 500 new shares of 10 euros nominal value at par when the company is already worth 500,000 euros hands the investor half the company for 5,000 euros. Price the premium on real accounts, document the valuation method in the decision file, and remember that the investor’s lawyers will ask for balance sheets, not promises. From abroad, the subscription itself (bulletin de souscription, the signed form by which each subscriber commits to take a stated number of new shares) can be signed electronically and returned by email, provided the articles do not require a handwritten original — verify that point before the closing, not after.

One final SAS checkpoint concerns paying up over time. Cash shares in an SAS need not be fully paid on subscription: the articles typically require at least half on issue, the balance within five years on calls by the president — check your own articles, because the exact fraction and deadline are contractual in an SAS. Shares subscribed but never paid up carry consequences: the subscriber remains debtor of the company, his voting and dividend rights on the unpaid portion can be suspended, and a subscriber who sells quickly may remain liable alongside his buyer. If you, the foreign founder, subscribe from abroad to defend your percentage, diary the release calls (appels de fonds) for the unpaid balance; French companies do call them, often years later, and a founder who ignored the letters discovers the claim when the company sues or when he tries to sell. Structure the increase so that the money the business needs arrives on day one — fully paid new shares for the incoming investor — and treat any deferred liberation as a documented debt, not as an informal understanding.

B. Raising capital in a SARL from abroad: which three-quarter majority, which quarter paid now, and where is the contribution-in-kind trap?

In a SARL, the statute — not the articles — sets the voting rule, and it is demanding. A capital increase amends the articles, and amendments to SARL articles require a reinforced majority: Toutes autres modifications des statuts sont décidées par les associés représentant au moins les trois quarts des parts sociales. Three quarters of the shares must approve — a higher bar than ordinary decisions, which need only more than half on second consultation. A foreign founder holding 60 percent of a SARL cannot force a capital increase through against a 40 percent partner; conversely, a 30 percent foreign minority can block an increase designed to dilute him. This blocking power is real leverage in negotiations, and it explains why dilution manoeuvres in SARLs so often end before the commercial court: the majority that pushes an increase through an irregular meeting, with a defective notice or a miscounted quorum, hands the minority an annulment action on a plate. From abroad, insist on a formal general meeting (assemblée générale extraordinaire) convened by the manager (gérant, the legal representative of a SARL) with the statutory notice period, the full reports, and the exact text of the resolutions — or, if the articles allow written consultation for extraordinary matters, a consultation that respects every formality to the letter. Proxies (pouvoirs) work perfectly well across borders: give a written proxy to a trusted person or to your French lawyer rather than missing the vote.

The subscription mechanics in a SARL are supervised step by step by the official enterprise portal (entreprendre.service-public.gouv.fr, the French administration’s reference site for business formalities), and its guidance is unforgiving on timing. Cash shares (parts nouvelles en numéraire) must be paid up at least one quarter of their nominal value on subscription, with the balance due within five years of the day the increase becomes definitive. The funds must then be deposited — with a bank or a notary (notaire) — within eight days of their receipt, evidenced by a deposit certificate (certificat du dépositaire). These are not targets; they are conditions of regularity that the greffe checks against the dated certificate. A foreign subscriber who wires the money late, or to the company’s operating account instead of the blocked increase account, breaks the chain: without a proper deposit certificate dated within the deadline, the registry rejects the filing and the increase cannot be published. Organise the wire before the meeting, from an account in the subscriber’s exact name, to a dedicated blocked account opened for the operation, and have the bank confirm in writing that the funds are frozen pending the increase. The eight-day clock runs from receipt, not from the meeting — diary it from the value date (date de valeur) of the transfer.

The contribution-in-kind trap is where SARL increases most often fail. Contributing equipment, a patent, a business (fonds de commerce) or a receivable instead of cash is perfectly lawful, but the contributed asset must be valued at a fair price — and the valuation must be checked. The statute requires: Les statuts doivent contenir l’évaluation de chaque apport en nature. That valuation is established on the basis of a report by a contributions auditor (commissaire aux apports, the independent professional who values in-kind contributions): un commissaire aux apports désigné à l’unanimité des futurs associés ou à défaut par une décision de justice. The auditor is appointed unanimously or by the court, his report is filed at the greffe at least eight days before the meeting that votes the increase, and — the point foreign founders underestimate — skipping him engages the joint and several liability (responsabilité solidaire) of the manager and the contributors for five years toward third parties, with criminal penalties for deliberate overvaluation. A foreign founder who contributes his own software or his shareholder current-account claim (compte courant d’associé, the running loan a shareholder leaves in the company) at an optimistic value, without an auditor, remains personally on the hook for five years — including toward the French tax office and future creditors. Narrow exemptions exist when every contribution is small and their total stays below half the capital, but treat the auditor as mandatory in practice: his fee is a fraction of the liability he extinguishes. And remember the bedrock duty behind every subscription, cash or kind: Chaque associé est débiteur envers la société de tout ce qu’il a promis de lui apporter en nature, en numéraire ou en industrie. What you promise at the meeting, you owe the company — from London or Dubai exactly as from Paris.

Two SARL specifics complete the picture before moving to payment and filing. First, the existing shareholders’ preferential right works economically like the SAS DPS described above: the official portal confirms the articles can grant shareholders priority to subscribe the new parts and keep their percentage, and the shareholders can set a premium paid by newcomers as an entry ticket. If you are the foreign minority, exercise or sell that priority expressly; silence dilutes you. Second, incorporation of reserves or profits (incorporation de réserves, increasing capital by moving existing reserves into capital, sometimes with free shares distributed to all) follows a lighter majority in some configurations — verify the exact rule applicable to your operation with counsel rather than assuming the three-quarter standard covers everything. The increase that suits a cash-hungry growing company (new money in, new subscriber) and the one that suits a profitable company rewarding loyalty (reserves capitalised, no new money) obey different logics: choose the mechanism before convening the meeting, because the resolutions, the reports and the filing pack differ.

II. How do you pay for, register and publish the capital increase without leaving France?

Voting the increase is half the job. The other half is making it exist: collecting the money or the assets, proving it, registering the amending documents for tax, and publishing the new capital at the company register. This phase runs on short statutory deadlines — eight days here, one month there — and every document must match the others to the letter: the subscriber’s name spelled identically on the subscription form, the wire transfer, the deposit certificate and the minutes. A mismatch is the most common cause of registry rejection for foreign subscribers, whose names cross transliteration and marital-name variations. The discipline is simple: one spelling, everywhere, decided before the first signature. With that discipline, the whole phase is handled by email, courier and a French representative — no flight required.

A. Paying from abroad: where does the cash land, who values the contribution, and what does the registration cost?

Cash subscriptions from abroad must land in the right account at the right time with the right reference. The subscription forms state the number of new shares and the amount due immediately (at least the legal minimum fraction); each subscriber wires that amount to the blocked account opened in the company’s name for the increase, with the reference the bank requires (usually the company name plus augmentation de capital). The depositary — bank or notary — then issues the deposit certificate listing each subscriber and amount. Only then can the manager or president record the subscriptions, declare the increase definitive, and amend the articles’ capital clause. Practical warnings from experienced closings: wire in euros to avoid exchange-rate shortfalls between the wired amount and the subscribed amount (a shortfall of even a few euros leaves the subscription technically unpaid); wire from the subscriber’s own account, because third-party wires trigger anti-money-laundering (lutte contre le blanchiment) questions from French banks that freeze the certificate for weeks; and never mingle the increase funds with operating cash before the certificate is issued. If the subscriber is a foreign company, the bank will ask for its incorporation documents, ownership chain and the identity of its own beneficial owners — collect these before the meeting, with sworn translations (traductions assermentées) where needed, or the eight-day deposit chain breaks on paperwork.

Contributions in kind demand a parallel chain of proof. For SAS increases, the statute provides the same auditor mechanism as at formation: En cas d’apports en nature ou de stipulation d’avantages particuliers, un ou plusieurs commissaires aux apports sont désignés à l’unanimité des actionnaires ou, à défaut, par décision de justice. Unanimous appointment or court appointment — in a two-shareholder SAS deadlocked over valuation, the court route via a simple petition (requête) to the president of the commercial court takes weeks, so start it before the conflict hardens. The auditors value the assets under their own liability (sous leur responsabilité), and the meeting must approve both the valuation and the contributor’s resulting shareholding. Special advantages (avantages particuliers, extras such as a guaranteed board seat or a profit priority granted to the contributor) are audited too — disclose them, because an undisclosed advantage discovered later poisons the whole operation. For receivables contributed as capital (converting a shareholder loan into shares, a frequent cleanup before a funding round), verify the claim is certain, liquid and due (certaine, liquide et exigible): the auditor and the statutory auditor (commissaire aux comptes, the external auditor, where one exists) will require a certificate, and a disputed or conditional claim cannot be capitalised. From abroad, the contributor signs the contribution deed (traité d’apport) describing each asset precisely, transfers title, and delivers the goods or documents — the company cannot issue the new shares against a promise of future delivery.

Registration for tax purposes (enregistrement, the formality of filing the deed with the tax office) is the cheapest step and the easiest to forget from abroad. The minutes amending the capital are filed with the tax office, and deeds that fall under no specific tariff pay the general fixed duty: Tous les actes qui ne se trouvent ni exonérés, ni tarifés par aucun autre article du présent code et qui ne peuvent donner lieu à une imposition proportionnelle ou progressive sont soumis à une imposition fixe de 125 €. Budget 125 euros of fixed duty for the filing, plus the registry and legal-publication costs — trivial amounts next to the capital raised, but a missing tax stamp (mention d’enregistrement) on the minutes is a standard ground for the greffe to reject the company-register filing. Appoint your French representative to file the minutes, collect the stamped copy, and forward it for the next step. One month is the practical horizon for the full chain from meeting to publication; internal diary discipline matters more than any single formality, because each receipt conditions the next filing and a lost week at the start becomes a missed deadline at the end.

B. Publishing from abroad: which single-portal filing, which beneficial-owners update, and which Paris specifics close the file?

Since 2023, all company filings run through one door: the Guichet Unique (guichet unique des formalités d’entreprises, the one-stop online filing portal operated via the INPI, the Institut national de la propriété industrielle, which centralises every company formality). The standing rule leaves no room for delay: Toute personne morale immatriculée demande, par l’intermédiaire de l’organisme unique mentionné à l’article R. 123-1, une inscription modificative dans le mois de tout fait ou acte rendant nécessaire la rectification ou le complément des énonciations prévues aux articles R. 123-53 et suivants. A capital increase always changes the registered details (amount of capital, sometimes number and distribution of shares, updated articles), so the amending filing (formalité modificative) must go online within one month of the definitive increase. The pack includes the minutes, the updated articles, the deposit certificate, the auditor’s report receipt where applicable, the subscription forms, and the identity documents of any incoming officer if management changed at the same time. From abroad, the filing is made by the legal representative or by an empowered agent (mandataire muni d’un pouvoir) — your French lawyer or accountant — with electronic signature. Rejections (rejets) are frequent on first submission, usually for a missing attachment or a wrongly coded event, and each rejection restarts the exchange without extending the one-month duty: file in the first half of the month, answer rejections within days, and keep every receipt (récépissé de dépôt) for the investor, who will condition the release of any second tranche on published proof.

The beneficial-owners register (registre des bénéficiaires effectifs, the RBE, the register identifying the individuals who ultimately own or control more than 25 percent of the capital or voting rights) must be revisited whenever the increase moves control. The rule is strict: La société ou l’entité immatriculée demande une inscription modificative dans les trente jours suivant tout fait ou acte rendant nécessaire la rectification ou le complément des informations déclarées. Thirty days from any change in the declared beneficial owners. A funding round that takes the founder from 100 to 60 percent changes nothing declarable if he stays above 25 percent — but the incoming investor crossing 25 percent must be declared with full identity details, and a founder falling below the threshold must be removed. For foreign individuals this means certified passports, proof of address, and sometimes sworn translations, collected across borders under time pressure — start collecting at the term-sheet stage, not at closing. An outdated RBE declaration does not annul the increase, but it flags the company at the bank (the investor’s own funds may be held pending compliance checks), with auditors, and in every future due-diligence questionnaire — and persistent failure is a criminal offence for the legal representative. Make the RBE update part of the closing checklist alongside the Guichet Unique filing, and deliver both receipts to the investor as a condition of releasing any holdback (retenue de garantie).

When the company sits in Paris or the Île-de-France — the case for most foreign-owned French companies — three local specifics apply. First, the competent registry is the greffe du tribunal de commerce de Paris (the Paris commercial court registry), whose examiners are meticulous on the coherence between the minutes, the deposit certificate and the updated articles: the capital figure must match to the euro across all three, and the subscriber’s name must be spelled identically everywhere, or the filing bounces. Second, the legal announcement (annonce légale, the mandatory notice of the capital change in an authorised legal gazette, a journal d’annonces légales) must be published before or with the filing, and Paris-based gazettes process foreign-company notices routinely — order it the day of the meeting, because the filing pack requires the publication certificate (attestation de parution). Third, tell the company’s bank and landlord about the new capital in the same week: Paris banks monitor the BODACC (Bulletin officiel des annonces civiles et commerciales, the official gazette where the registry publishes amendments), and the bank that learns of a doubled capital from the gazette before hearing it from its client starts asking questions about the origin of funds — exactly the anti-money-laundering review you wanted to avoid. None of this requires a Paris trip; your representative handles the portal, the registry and the correspondence. What it requires is a Paris-aware closing file where every figure reconciles — which is precisely what the sequence in this guide produces.

Conclusion

Raising capital in your French company from abroad succeeds when you respect the French order of operations: the collective decision first — sont, dans les conditions prévues par les statuts, exercées collectivement par les associés — the preferential rights second — Les actions comportent un droit préférentiel de souscription aux augmentations de capital — the payment and valuation proof third, and the single-portal filing with its thirty-day beneficial-owners correction to close. Decide the mechanism before convening anyone, price the premium on real accounts, wire clean euros to a blocked account, appoint the contributions auditor without bargaining over his fee, and file within the month through a French representative. Run this way, the increase is definitive, the investor’s title is unassailable, and your percentage is exactly what you chose; improvised, it unravels in the registry, at the bank, and before the courts — years after the money is spent. If a funding round is on your horizon, open your articles today: everything else flows from what they say.