Equity
Assets minus liabilities — the part of the company that genuinely belongs to its owners.
Equity is made up of share capital, the statutory reserve, retained earnings from previous periods and the current year's result.
Negative equity means liabilities exceed assets. Maltese company law attaches a duty to that situation, though a narrower one than it is often described as. Under article 104(1) of the Companies Act (Cap. 386) it is the directors of a *public* company who must act: where net assets fall to half or less of called-up issued share capital, they have thirty days from the day any director learns of it to convene a general meeting. The Act attaches no equivalent duty to a private company, which is what most of this register is. It is one of the few things in a public report with a direct legal consequence.
In a profitable year equity grows by the net profit if nothing is distributed; in a loss-making year it shrinks.
Equity in figures
Values from published annual reports. 63 companies could be ranked — a company that did not report this figure is not in the list.
- 1BANK OF VALLETTA P.L.C.€1,496,974,000
- 2INTERNATIONAL HOTEL INVESTMENTS P.L.C.€919,043,000
- 3HSBC BANK MALTA P.L.C.€625,556,000
- 4Kindred Group Limited€507,600,000
- 5STIVALA GROUP FINANCE P.L.C.€386,842,376
Where this figure comes from
Read from the “Total equity” line of the balance sheet in the annual report.
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