Companies Registration Office Report 2017

 

The Companies Registration Office Report 2017 has recently been published, and is available to view online here.

Ray Hunt from the ICSA Company Law and Regulatory Committee makes some observations below on the report:

-      Increase in number of companies on the register doubled during the recession compared to during the boom – 18% increase in total companies on the register over the 10 year period from 2007 to 2017 compared with a 9% increase in the 10 year period from 1997 to 2007.

-      Record number of new companies incorporated – at 22,034 this is an increase of 6.4% over 2016.

-      Extension of time to file annual return – over 95% of applications made to the District court / High Court were granted (999 out of 1,024).

-      Domestic mergers growing in popularity – 89 completed in 2017 compared to 28 in 2016 (and 4 in 2015).

-      DAC anyone? Only 2% of private limited companies are registered as DACs.

-      Brexit planning? – Over 4 times more UK companies with Irish branches registered than those of the next nearest country (Cayman Islands).

-      IT improvements on the way! – a full refresh and redevelopment of the databases of companies and business names is on-going and expected to complete Q2 2019.