Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that a total of 1,360 new companies were incorporated in the fourth quarter of 2018, up by 134 year-on-year. New companies operating in Wholesale & Retail Trade (532), Business Services (311) and the Construction sector (173) predominated. Total value of registered capital fell by 53.6% year-on-year to MOP277 million as a branch of a Mainland bank was set up in Macao in the same quarter of 2017. On the other hand, value of registered capital in the Transport, Storage & Communications sector soared by 735.5% year-on-year to MOP43 million, attributable to the incorporation of a number of companies with large capital in the Transport sector in the fourth quarter. Companies in dissolution totalled 208, down by 17 year-on-year, and the value of registered capital of these companies amounted to MOP226 million.

In the fourth quarter of 2018, the capital of the new companies came mainly from Macao, at MOP218 million. Capital from Mainland China totalled MOP38 million, with MOP16 million (Zhuhai accounting for 50.4%) coming from the Mainland cities in the Greater Bay Area, and capital from Hong Kong amounted to MOP6 million. Analysed by combination of shareholders, 919 new companies were established solely by Macao shareholders, and 177 were joint ventures between shareholders from Macao and other countries or territories.

For the whole year of 2018, newly incorporated companies totalled 5,953, up by 776 year-on-year; total value of registered capital declined by 87.9% to MOP986 million on account of a decrease in capital in Financial Services. Number of companies in dissolution was 813 in 2018, with the value of registered capital of these companies amounting to MOP453 million.

Analysed by size of registered capital, there were 4,562 new companies (76.6% of total) registered with capital under MOP50,000 in 2018, and the corresponding value of capital totalled MOP118 million (11.9% of total). Meanwhile, 111 new companies were registered with capital of MOP1 million or over, and the value of capital amounted to MOP698 million.

At the end of 2018, number of registered companies increased by 5,141 year-on-year to 66,186.