I registered a limited liability company in Egypt in 1997: I bought land and built a workshop on it. I employed 50 workers.
It took 3 years to get connected to electricity: in the end we took the electricity company to court, and won. But in the meantime I had to buy a big generator or allow my newborn business to die.
We are still not connected to water 20 years later.
The local authority hit us with illegal re-zoning fees equivalent to 4 times the purchase cost of the land. We took them to court, and again, we won. But the court decision is simply ignored, and veiled threats are made to kick me out of the country unless we pay.
We have been in and out of the labour courts for over twenty years, and lost every single case.
We have been screwed over by our own lawyers more times than I can recount.
I have had over thirty AIDS/HIV tests, which are a condition for the issuance of a work permit.
Knowing what I now know, I would never have invested in Egypt as an independent investor, all those years ago.
And the worst of it all, whereas I want to close the business and retire, I am terrified of the costs involved, which appear to be without defined limit.
Finally: forget the legal definition of a limited liability company. It exists on the statute book, but in practise your personal liability is unlimited.
