A total of 4,540 companies and partnerships were registered in 2013, a 12 per cent increase over the previous year, according to the Malta Financial Services Authority.

During the year, 1,189 companies were put into liquidation, compared with 1,049 the previous year. There were also 210 mergers, up from 135 the previous year.

This brought the total number of companies and partnerships registered to 65,162, of which two-thirds are active.

There was also a marked increase of 60 per cent in the number of companies which transferred their domicile to Malta.

Seventy per cent of the 111 companies that did so were from outside the EU. Twenty-eight of the companies will be passporting their services from Malta via the EU’s freedom of services.

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