New Companies Register registrations in April 2015: decline after a strong March
April was unable to match the strong performance of the previous month, and experienced a decline. When compared to this month last year, new registrations recorded by the Companies Register in April 2015 also recorded a slight decline. It’s a subdued start to the 2nd quarter of 2015.
Decline after a strong March
The canton’s Commercial Register recorded 3408 new registrations in April 2015. This is 9.4% less than in March 2015. However, March 2015 was the strongest month since 2012. It is therefore understandable that the April figure would be lower in direct comparison. Compared to April 2014, new registrations dropped by 3.46%. This corresponds to an absolute reduction of 122 new registrations compared to April 2014. So this could be described as a subdued start to the 2nd quarter of 2015.
As usual, leading the registration of start-ups was the Canton of Zürich. With more than 600 new companies on the books, the canton accounted for around 17% of all registrations made in Switzerland in April 2015.
GmbH still popular
Limited liability companies (GmbH) are still the most frequently chosen by founders. Overall, around 37% opted for this form. Next came sole traders, who accounted for almost 33% of all start-ups. The popularity of corporations (Aktiengesellschafte) increased by around 2% compared to the 1st quarter of 2015, to a total share of 21%. AGs therefore remain in 3rd place.
Decline in the regions
Switzerland’s main three language regions have all recorded a decline in new registrations. The region of Ticino showed the strongest decrease of 14%. French-speaking Switzerland registered a decrease of 6%. German-speaking Switzerland recorded the best performance with a minimal decline of 0.6%.
In the individual cantons, there were again significant differences in terms of the decrease or increase in the number of start-ups. Exact figures are displayed in the following table.
