Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that a total of 1,226 new companies were incorporated in the fourth quarter of 2017, up by 179 year-on-year; total value of registered capital rose by 71.8% to MOP597 million. New companies operating in Wholesale & Retail (447), Business Services (297) and Construction (156) increased by 118, 10 and 29 respectively year-on-year. Companies in dissolution totalled 225, up by 32 year-on-year, and the value of registered capital of companies in dissolution amounted to MOP27 million.
In the fourth quarter of 2017, capital of the new companies came mainly from Mainland China (MOP459 million), with MOP31 million from the Nine Provinces of the Pan-Pearl River Delta Region, of which Guangdong province accounted for MOP30.6 million. Capital from Macao and Hong Kong totalled MOP106 million and MOP25 million respectively. Analysed by combination of the shareholders, there were 823 new companies established solely by Macao shareholders, and 134 joint ventures between shareholders from Macao and other countries or territories.
For the whole year of 2017, number of newly incorporated companies rose by 785 year-on-year to 5,177, reversing the decline in the previous two years; total value of registered capital went up by 1,013.2% to MOP8.2 billion, mainly due to the incorporation of companies with large capital in Financial Services Sector during the year. Number of companies in dissolution totalled 803 in 2017, with the value of registered capital of companies in dissolution amounting to MOP146 million.
Analysed by size of registered capital, there were 3,828 new companies (73.9% of total) registered with capital under MOP50,000, and the total value of capital was MOP100 million (1.2% of total). On the other hand, there were 111 new companies registered with capital of MOP1 million or over, and the total value of capital amounted to MOP7.9 billion.
At the end of 2017, number of registered companies increased by 4,369 year-on-year to 61,045.