Registered companies up 28% in 2010

A record high of 139,530 local companies registered with the Companies Registry last year.

According to Hong Kong Services Department, an increase of 27.51% for the registration came in.

By the end of last year, the total number of live local companies registered under the Companies Ordinance was 863,762, up 91,509 from that in 2009.

For non-Hong Kong companies that have newly established a place of business in Hong Kong, 737 were registered under Part XI of the Companies Ordinance in 2010, an increase of 7.91% from 683 in 2009. The total number of non-Hong Kong companies stood at 8,165 at the end of the year.

Registrar of Companies Ada Chung said the registry will soon launch electronic incorporation of companies and a one-stop service for electronic company incorporation and business registration.

“Upon implementation of the new services, an application for company incorporation and business registration can be completed in one step, and the time required will be significantly reduced from four working days to less than one day,” she said.

The number of charges on assets of companies received for registration in 2010 was 41,337, an increase of 50.54% from 27,459 in 2009. The number of memoranda of satisfaction and releases received for registration increased by 22.84%, from 24,126 in 2009 to 29,636 in 2010.

A total of 195 prospectuses were registered last year, while the total number of documents received for filing was 1,884,262.

A total of 3,113,758 searches of document image records were conducted through the Registry’s Electronic Search Services in 2010. The number of searches of the computerised Index of Directors was 284,461. The number of Reports on Company Particulars issued was 191,005.

The total number of summonses issued by the Registrar of Companies last year against companies for breaches of the Companies Ordinance, mainly for failure to file annual returns, was 5,341, a decrease of 1.07% from 5,399 in 2009.