A total of 4,555 new companies were incorporated in Macao last year, 456 fewer than in 2023, according to figures from the Statistics and Census Service (known by its Portuguese initials, DSEC). That 9 percent drop was accompanied by an even bigger year-on-year drop – 37.5 percent – in the registered capital of new companies, which amounted to 1.03 billion patacas (US$128.2 million).
Analysed by size of registered capital, 3,150 of 2024’s new companies had capital valued at under 50,000 patacas. Eighty-four of them registered with capital worth 1 million patacas or more. The combined value of their capital, 755 million patacas (US$94 million), made up 73.2 percent of the total.
The number of new companies operating in the categories of wholesale and retail trade, and business services, totalled 1,509 and 1,322 respectively in 2024.
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The number of companies dissolved last year, meanwhile, was 1,098. The combined value of their registered capital was 451 million patacas.
By quarter, the number of newly incorporated companies decreased by 9 percent to 1,125 in the fourth quarter of last year. Together, their capital was valued at 420 million – a significant quarterly leap of 64.8 percent. DSEC attributed the jump to a public tender issued by the government for services related to urban cleaning and refuse collection during the last three months of 2024.
The period also saw 39.6 percent of the capital of newly incorporated companies come from mainland China (12 percent of that from cities in Guangdong Province). Some 31.5 percent came from Macao and 28.3 percent from Hong Kong.
