Ask how many holding companies Malta has and most sources give an estimate, or nothing. The Malta Business Registry records a line of business for every company it registers, which means the answer can be counted. These are those counts.
The most common kind of company Malta registers
12,882 entities on the register record holding as their line of business, and 8,958 of them are active today. That total is a floor, not the full number, for a reason set out at the end: before 2016 the register rarely recorded a line of business at all.
Since 2016 it almost always has, and over that period nothing else comes close. Among active companies registered from 2016 on, holding is the single most common line of business — 8,363 companies, ahead of 6,717 for the next, and about eight times the 1,073 recording management consultancy in third place.
About one new company in four
Share of each year's new registrations that recorded holding as their line of business, among those that recorded one at all:
| Registered | With a line of business | Holding | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 2,726 | 908 | 33.3% |
| 2017 | 3,055 | 1,081 | 35.4% |
| 2018 | 3,897 | 1,155 | 29.6% |
| 2019 | 3,060 | 669 | 21.9% |
| 2020 | 2,561 | 568 | 22.2% |
| 2021 | 2,841 | 719 | 25.3% |
| 2022 | 2,587 | 620 | 24.0% |
| 2023 | 3,035 | 736 | 24.3% |
| 2024 | 3,213 | 782 | 24.3% |
| 2025 | 3,691 | 789 | 21.4% |
In 2016 and 2017 roughly one new company in three was a holding company. From 2019 the share settled at between one in four and one in five, and it has stayed there. The register records that the share fell; it does not record why, and this article does not guess.
Where they are registered
Active holding companies by the town of their registered office:
| Town | Active holding companies |
|---|---|
| Birkirkara | 1,655 |
| Valletta | 1,253 |
| San Ġiljan | 626 |
| Sliema | 589 |
| Ta' Xbiex | 585 |
Each town links to its full listing, which includes companies that are no longer active, so the totals there are higher.
What form they take
More than half — 4,957 of the 8,958 active — are private exempt companies with a single member: one shareholder, which is the shape a holding company most often takes when it exists to hold something on one owner's behalf. A further 1,996 are private exempt companies with more than one member, and 1,441 are private non-exempt. 259 are recorded as companies continued into Malta from elsewhere.
Shared registered offices
39% of active holding companies — 3,259 of the 8,306 with a usable address on the register — give a registered office shared with at least nine other companies, and one address alone is the registered office of 210. That is what the address of a corporate service provider, law firm or registered-office agent looks like. It says who handles the company's paperwork, and nothing about who owns it or whether two companies at the same address are related.
What these numbers can and cannot tell you
Every figure here is an Overit count of the Malta Business Registry's own data as Overit loaded it on 22 August 2026, counted in September 2026 — not an official statistic. Three limits are worth knowing.
The line of business is the company's own. It is what the company recorded when it registered, not an assessment of what it does now. A company that recorded holding and later began trading is still counted here.
Before 2016 the field is mostly empty. The register recorded a line of business for 99–100% of companies registered from 2016 onward, and for only 4–28% of those registered earlier. So an older holding company is usually invisible to any count by line of business — which is why the total above is a floor, and why every comparison over time starts in 2016.
The register shows what, not why. It records how many companies were registered and in what form. It does not record the reasons, and nothing here should be read as a statement about tax, law or advice. To look at the companies themselves, browse the full listing or walk the whole register. For the same counts across every company, not only holding companies, see how many companies are registered in Malta.