No. of newly set up Czech firms up 10 pct at 12,644 in H1 - CEKIA

Almost a half of the companies were set up in Prague. More than 60 percent of the new firms operate in wholesale, real estate, services and the construction industry, CEKIA data show.

The number of newly registered companies in the first six months of the year is comparable to the first half of 2008 when 12,686 businesses were established.

The number for the first half of 2010 is around one-tenth higher than in the first half of 2007. In the past seven years, the biggest number of new companies was established in 2007 when 25,030 new businesses emerged in the full year.

"If the setting up of new businesses maintains its pace also in the second half of the year, 2010 could become the most successful year in the eight-year history during which CEKIA has been monitoring these statistics," CEKIA analyst Petra Stepanova said.

"Interest in running own business is growing again in the Czech Republic owing to the fragile recovery of the domestic economy as well as rather high unemployment when people who had lost jobs started to set up their own companies," Stepanova added.

Of the newly established companies, 581 (4.6 percent) were joint-stock companies. Limited liability companies, which are the most popular legal form of business activity in the Czech Republic, accounted for 95.4 percent of the new firms.

The share of joint-stock companies on the total number of companies has been falling in the past seven years, Stepanova said.

"It is obvious that the importance of small and medium-sized companies for the Czech economy will grow," she said.

CEKIA registered a total of 332,554 companies in its databases as of June 30, 2010, of which 23,770 were joint-stock companies and 308,784 were limited liability companies.

The share os joint-stock companies on the total number was 7.1 percent and the share of limited liability companies was 92.9 percent.

Almost half (5,718) of the total number of businesses were established in Prague in the first half of the year.

New companies were also frequently established in Jihomoravsky region (1,298 new firms), Moravskoslezsky region (926 firms) and Stredocesky region (817 firms).

In contrast, the lowest number of newly set up companies was reported for Karlovarsky region (209), Liberecky region (235) and Vysocina region (246).

More than 43 percent of companies established in the first half of 2010 focus on wholesale and activities in real estate, followed by services such as accounting, auditing, advertising, and various forms of consulting services and activities in the construction sector.

More than 60 percent of newly established companies decided to be active in these four sectors.

CEKIA is a leading Czech provider of corporate and economic information databases. It is part of the Bisnode group which is a leading provider of electronic business information in Europe.

Number of newly established companies in 2008-2010:

Source: CEKIA, database MagnusWeb

Author: ČTK
www.ctk.cz