Registrar-Generals-Department-Annual-report-1955-1956 — Page 19

PART IV

COMPANIES REGISTRY

Companies Registration

24. The Companies Registry was established by the Com- panies Ordinance, 1865, the lineal ancestor of the present Companies Ordinance (Cap. 32), which is based on the U.K. Companies Act, 1929 (now replaced in England by the Com- panies Act, 1948).

25. During 1955/56, 284 new companies with a total nominal capital of $273,028,000 were incorporated under the Ordinance, and 38 Certificates of Compliance with the provi- sions of Part XI of the Ordinance were issued to foreign cor- porations which had established a place of business within the Colony. Table VIII gives an analysis of the 284 new companies formed according to the amount of their share capital, with for comparison a similar analysis of the companies formed in the five preceding years.

26. At 31st March, 1956, there were 2,618 local companies on the Companies Register as against 2,803 a year before, the decrease being due principally to the striking off of 362 defunct companies which had not reconstructed their records since the war, under the Companies (Reconstruction of Records) Ordin- ance, (Cap. 249). On the same date 353 foreign companies were registered as having an established place of business in Hong Kong and complied with the provisions of Part XI of the Ordinance. This is 124 less than last year's figure, this decrease similarly being due to the removal from the register of the names of 149 companies which have not reconstructed their records since the war. Table IX shows the countries in which these 353 companies are incorporated.

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