Malta Company Registry Steady Growth

Malta Company Registry Records Steady Growth

As at the end of 2015, the Malta Registry of Companies counted active 87,971 companies. This is a net increase of 8,516 companies from the prior year, or 10.9% over 2014. 11,721 new businesses were constituted during 2015, with de-registrations of business units reaching 3,205. Data from the National Statistics Office (NSO) shows that 39,965 Companies are listed as having sole ownership or are constituted in the form of a partnership. Limited liability companies make up just over 50% of the population, while 3,251 are listed as ‘other’.

According to the data published, 85,673 are so called ‘micro’ companies, and employ less than 10 persons. 1,758 companies employ 10 to 49 people, 440 employ 50 to 249 and a 100 companies are classified as ‘large’ and employ more than 250 persons.

The NSO report also analysis the list of companies by sector and economic activity. Units in financial and insurance activities, professional, scientific and technical activities, administrative and support service activities, and construction amounted to 15.6, 11.3, 7.8 and 7.7 per cent respectively of the total registered units in 2015.

The increase in unit count is an encouraging figure in evaluating Malta’s economic performance during 2015. According to the last World Economic Forum Competitiveness report, Malta represents a good jurisdiction for doing business due to its attention to property rights; intellectual property protection; judicial independence; quality of port and air transport infrastructure; health and education; financial market sophistication and soundness of banks; and the availability of latest technologies and firm-level technology absorption. On the other hand, the government is working to reduce government inefficiencies and bureaucracy which is listed as the biggest hurdle to Malta’s competitiveness by the World Economic Forum.