What the document is
The memorandum records who formed the company and their intention to do so. The articles set out how it is run: share classes, director powers, meetings, voting and what happens on a transfer. Together they are the company's constitution, and a foreign registry or bank reads them to work out who may sign for the company.
Translating a constitution
A certified translation of a Memorandum & Articles of Association in the United Kingdom follows the numbering of the source exactly, clause for clause. Cross-references matter here more than anywhere else: if clause 14.2 points at clause 9, the finished text has to point at the same place. Nothing is merged and nothing is renumbered.
Who certifies it
An ITI or CIOL qualified certified translator does the work and signs a certificate of accuracy. The page names the source language, the target language, the qualification and the date, and it stays fixed to the bundle. A foreign registrar reads it first, because it names a person who stands behind every clause below.
Cost and timing
Work is priced per page of the source at about £25 a page, so a long constitution is simply more sheets at the same rate. Standard turnaround is 2-3 business days from the arrival of your file, and express work is finished within 24 hours when a closing date or a registration slot is already fixed.
Use the version on the register
Translate the current filed version, not an early draft kept on a laptop. Amended articles are common, and a rendering of a superseded set will not match what a foreign reader finds. Where a director's own civil record travels with the company file, Reading Register Office at Civic Offices, Bridge Street, Reading RG1 2LU issues certified copies of birth and marriage records.