Newly registered firms
up 62 percent in a decade

The majority are proprietorship

The number of new companies being registered has increased by 62 percent in the past ten years.

Last year, 8,422 companies were registered, an eight percent decrease from 2015, and about the same as in 2014, according to data compiled by Khalil Masri&Fils.

In 2016, registrations of proprietorship companies topped the list (around 4,000), followed by Société à Responsabilité Limitée (SARL), or Limited Liability Companies, (2,300), Société Anonyme Libanaise (SAL), or Joint Stock Companies (980), Offshore SAL (450), and Limited Partnerships (380).

Most of the registered companies are labeled ‘general trade’. But this is just a generic title, and is generally followed by the real objects clause in the company's official documentation.

Around 4,000 companies were registered in Baabda (covering Mount Lebanon), 2,000 companies in Beirut, with the rest spread among Tripoli, Zahle and Saida, covering the North, Bekaa, and the South, respectively.

The number of foreign companies registered last year was 32, with a 10-year aggregate of 2,863.