Number of new companies in Slovakia rises, while bankruptcies drop

Over 20,000 new companies were opened in Slovakia in 2017 according to Slovakian consulting firm Bisnode, while 6,728 businesses closed in the same period. 

Bisnode, a Slovakian consulting firm with offices in Bratislava and Trenčín, has performed an analysis of the stability and risk distribution of over 201,000 companies in the country by region, recording 20,025 businesses launched in 2017 (bringing the country’s total to nearly 260,000), and the demise of 6,728 in the same period – a drop in numbers on the previous two years.

Of the new ventures, 206 were joint-stock companies, with the remaining 19,819 listed as limited liability companies. Together, up to a fifth of the new enterprises were in the construction, wholesale, retailing, automotive and transport sectors. The capital Bratislava registered the highest number of companies followed by the Nitra and Košice regions, with the least registered in Trenčín.

Slovakia’s capital and its surrounding area recorded 6,275 new companies, while the remaining regions all registered under 2000, with Nitra (1,956) and Košice (1,918) ahead of Trenčín with 1,396. The capital, however, also saw the highest number of closures, with 1,985 Bratislavan companies shutting their doors since January last year. The figure represents nearly one third of the total number of defunct businesses across the country for 2017, documented by the firm at 6,728. 

Bisnode analyst Petra Štěpánová explained that Bratislava was considered the riskiest as it had the highest concentration of businesses. Following Bratislava, 582 companies closed in Košice, and there were 239 companies which finished up in Žilina. Almost 80% of the closures, or 5,283 of the total, were companies in the core capital category of up to 10,000 euros. Companies from the US and Seychelles recorded the highest casualty rates, with the biggest influx from Cyprus. 

The consulting firm calculated the high-risk rate for Bratislava as 16% of companies, with Nitra closely following at 15.39% and then Košice at 15.09, with one sixth of the companies operating in Slovakia overall threatened by bankruptcy. Štěpánová said: “The firms rated at high-risk are, according to our databases, more often unreliable VAT-payers, they tend to have only virtual addresses, or they dodge their information obligations.” 

Altogether, however, the number of total annual closures is declining. While 2014 saw 6,959 companies cease operations, the figure increased significantly for the following two years, with 8,670 businesses closed in 2015 and a further 8,599 finishing in 2016. The latest, sizeable reduction in figures demonstrates that companies in Slovakia are on average better off than in recent times. “The state of the economy is good,” says Štěpánová.