March saw the highest number of new companies since 2018

In March, 1,032 new companies were registered in Latvia, according to information compiled by Lursoft. It is the highest number of new companies registered in one month since March 2018. In almost half of the cases, the companies registered in March are the first company for their owners, i. e. these persons were not previously members of other companies.

93% of the companies registered in March are limited liability companies. The newly established enterprises also include sole traders, joint-stock companies, branches of foreign traders, farms.

In the first quarter of this year, 2,474 new companies were registered in Latvia, while 4,675 were liquidated, according to Lursoft data.
Where were the companies registered in March?

• 42.23% in Riga,
• 20.97% in Pierīga Region,
• 10.87% in Zemgale,
• 10,00% in Kurzeme,
• 9.13% in Vidzeme
• 6.80% in Latgale.

Apart from the capital city, the largest number of new companies in March were registered in Jelgava, Jūrmala, and Liepāja.

The total share capital of the companies registered in March amounts to 15.9 million euros, according to Lursoft calculations. More than half (59.58%) of all new economic operators registered last month are small-capital LLCs, i. e. their share capital is less than EUR 2,800. Five new companies with share capital exceeding one million euros were also registered. The largest of these is RB ELG SIA, registered on 4 March, with a registered and paid-up share capital of 4.55 million euros. The company’s shareholder is Rietumu Banka AS, while the beneficial owners are Leonids Esterkins and Dermot Fachtna Desmond. It is not the only company registered in the last month by persons linked to the banking sector. The third-largest company of the past month is Tāla 1 SIA; the beneficial owners are Nika Berne and Oļegs Fiļs. The shareholder of this company is Pillar Capital AS, which, according to the information available in Lursoft, is currently registered as a shareholder in 23 companies.

One-tenth of the new companies registered last month have foreign capital, data from Lursoft show. In March, the accumulated amount invested by foreigners in the share capital of companies registered in Latvia continued to grow. Currently, foreign representatives have invested 7.7 billion euros in Latvian companies. Over the past month, this amount has increased by 2.26 million euros. In February, the increase was significantly higher at 76.01 million euros. January saw a fall of 11.87 million euros in accrued investment.

Last year saw the lowest number of new companies registered in 17 years. Lursoft data show that 8,938 new enterprises were registered in 2020, which is 14.42% less than in 2019.

Of all the new entrepreneurs who registered their first company last year, 70.1% were aged 21–40, wrote Labs of Latvia. According to Lursoft, 32.9% of the founders were aged 21–30, while 37.2% were aged 31–40.

Source: labsoflatvia.com