Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that a total of 1,436 new companies were incorporated in the fourth quarter of 2019, up by 76 year-on-year. New companies operating in Wholesale & Retail Trade and Business Services totalled 578 and 322 respectively. Total value of registered capital increased by 22.7% year-on-year to MOP340 million, attributable to the incorporation of new business services companies with relatively large capital during the quarter. Companies in dissolution totalled 239 in the fourth quarter, and the value of registered capital of these companies amounted to MOP33 million.
In the fourth quarter of 2019, mainland China accounted for 54.4% of the capital of the new companies, at MOP185 million, of which MOP157 million came from the mainland cities in the Greater Bay Area (Zhuhai taking up 78.1%). Meanwhile, capital from Hong Kong and Macao amounted to MOP80 million and MOP63 million respectively. Analysed by combination of shareholders, 829 new companies were established solely by Macao shareholders, and 195 were joint ventures between shareholders from Macao and other countries or regions.
For the whole year of 2019, newly incorporated companies totalled 6,140, up by 187 year-on-year; total value of registered capital soared by 334.0% to MOP4 billion, with an upsurge in the capital in the Transport, Storage & Communications sector and Financial Services. Number of companies in dissolution was 885 in 2019, and the value of registered capital of these companies amounted to MOP235 million.
Analysed by size of registered capital, there were 4,595 new companies (74.8% of total) registered with capital under MOP50,000 in 2019, and the corresponding value of capital totalled MOP118 million (2.8% of total). Meanwhile, 121 new companies were registered with capital of MOP1 million or over, and the value of capital amounted to MOP4 billion (92.7%).
At the end of 2019, number of registered companies in Macao increased by 5,254 year-on-year to 71,440.