Undeterred by COVID uncertainty, Malta registered over 3,000 new companies in 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic may have dealt a blow to the Maltese economy, but entrepreneurs still found plenty of opportunities giving cause for optimism, registering over 3,000 new companies in 2020.

A total of 3,211 public and private limited companies were registered last year, down from 4,245 in 2019.

Minister for the Economy, Investment and Small Business Silvio Schembri was responding to a series of Parliamentary Questions by Shadow Minister for Finance Mario de Marco.

Meanwhile, 55 partnerships were registered last year, a drop from 97 in the previous year.

The number of companies struck off ballooned in 2020, increasing fourfold from 2,971 in 2019 to 13,189 in 2020.

The ‘cleaning up’ process of the Malta Business Registry (MBR) was one of the measures recommended by Moneyval, although information pertaining to the struck off companies is unavailable on the Registry, a move criticised by civil society.

There was no commensurate increase in partnerships struck off, with only 37 registered as defunct, as compared to 30 in 2019.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, more companies went into liquidation in 2020 (2,292) than in 2019 (1,944).

Finally, 13,498 companies were late in the submission of their annual return to the MBR in 2020, up from 11,680 the previous year.