Jurisdictions including the Isle of Man, Mauritius, Cayman and the British Virgin Islands were approximately 10% down in the latter half, the group’s latest ‘On the Register Report’ stated.
The slowdown was attributed to the impact of uncertain global economic conditions across the majority of offshore markets.
But the report also highlighted grounds for optimism in 2013 with Bermuda showing a 7% increase and comparative market Hong Kong growing the total number of active registered companies by 9%, with the local register there breaking through the one million mark for the first time.
The Mauritius and Cayman registries are “steadily returning to their pre-recession peaks” experiencing a 3% and 1% rise respectively.
Farah Ballands, partner and global head of fiduciary & administration services at Appleby, said: “There are signs that 2013 will be a watershed year in terms of seeing a universal return to pre-2009 activity levels across the offshore jurisdictions.”
The British Virgin Islands (BVI) continues to dominate the volume of new company incorporations offshore with a continuing trend in the formation of companies in the information, technology, natural resources, mining and extraction sectors.
This related to heightened activity in telecommunications and global project and infrastructure work in the robust markets of Africa, Canada, Latin America, Mongolia and Australia all of which is driving demand for BVI vehicles, the report stated.
“Continued uncertainty in some markets and the shift in focus from China/Asia to Africa for jurisdictions like Mauritius and the Seychelles are preventing a speedy return to the numbers of company formations recorded prior to the global economic crisis,” Ballands said.
Year on year, Guernsey is the only offshore jurisdiction revealing growth in new company registration activity with a 1% increase between 2011 and 2012.
Mauritius is the offshore economy witnessing the greatest growth rate in total number of companies on its register, with a 3% increase between 2011-2012.
Data was collected from reported figures produced by the national registries of Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Guernsey, Hong Kong, the Isle of Man and the UK, as well as Jersey Finance, the Central Bank of Seychelles and the Financial Services Commissions of Mauritius and the British Virgin Islands.
