Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that a total of 1,082 new companies were incorporated in the fourth quarter of 2021, a decrease of 455 year-on-year. Number of new companies operating in Wholesale & Retail Trade (389) and Business Services (257) went down by 206 and 144 respectively. Total value of registered capital soared by 278.2% year-on-year to MOP539 million, attributable to the incorporation of new Business Services companies with relatively large capital during the quarter. Companies in dissolution totalled 194 in the fourth quarter, and the value of registered capital of these companies amounted to MOP88 million.
As regards origin of capital, the British Virgin Islands and Macao contributed MOP210 million and MOP183 million to the capital of newly incorporated companies, accounting for 39.0% and 34.0% respectively of the total. Capital from mainland China totalled MOP97 million, taking up 18.0% of the total; capital from Guangdong totalled MOP35 million, of which MOP34 million came from the Mainland cities in the Greater Bay Area (with 57.0% coming from Zhuhai). Analysed by combination of shareholders, 719 new companies were established solely by Macao shareholders, and 115 were joint ventures between shareholders from Macao and other countries or regions.
For the whole year of 2021, newly incorporated companies totalled 5,434, a decrease of 261 year-on-year; meanwhile, total value of registered capital surged by 123.9% to MOP1.36 billion. Number of companies in dissolution was 828 in 2021, and the value of registered capital of these companies amounted to MOP370 million.
Analysed by size of registered capital, there were 3,897 new companies (71.7% of total) registered with capital under MOP50,000 in 2021, and the corresponding value of capital totalled MOP101 million (7.4% of total). Meanwhile, 99 new companies were registered with capital of MOP1 million or over, and the value of capital amounted to MOP1.03 billion (75.7%).
At the end of 2021, number of registered companies in Macao totalled 81,060.