Riga, July 17 (LETA) - In the first six months of this year, 4,448 companies were liquidated in Latvia, which is 11.3 percent less than in the first half of 2024, according to the data of Lursoft research.

The largest number of companies was liquidated in January this year - 1,049, with the number of liquidations gradually decreasing in the following months. In June, 575 companies were liquidated.

Lursoft pointed out that the first half of the year was positive for the total number of companies in Latvia, with 14.6 percent more new companies than liquidated ones.

The companies liquidated in the first six months of this year represent a wide range of sectors, from manufacturing to services and trade. The data show that almost 13 percent of all companies dissolved in the first six months of 2025 are retailers, with a further 7 percent wholesalers. Almost 8 percent of all companies dissolved in the first half of 2025 are providers of land transport services.

Lursoft has found that a large proportion of all companies liquidated in the first half of the year had some kind of registered encumbrance which had already signaled problems in their operations. For example, 35 percent of all companies had tax debts of more than EUR 150 at the time of liquidation, including more than 500 companies that were already over EUR 10,000 in debt at the time of liquidation.

Although the average age of companies liquidated in the first half of the year is nine years, in almost 30 percent of cases less than five years elapsed between registration and liquidation, while 27 of the liquidated companies were registered this year alone, Lursoft informed.

Most of the companies registered this year and already liquidated are individual merchants, but there are also a few limited liability companies, as well as one branch of a foreign company. Lursoft data show that the Latvian branch of SmartCross, registered in Estonia, was established in early February this year, but was liquidated a month later.

The decision to liquidate was taken just as quickly by FetchFood, a producer of ready-to-eat pet food from the Aluksne region. According to Lursoft, the company was registered at the beginning of February, but decided to liquidate at the end of the month. The liquidation process of FetchFood was completed at the end of April.

The largest share of liquidated companies over newly registered ones in the first half of 2025 was in the Kraslava region, according to Lursoft data. In the first six months of the year, 14 new companies were registered in this municipality, while 67 companies were liquidated. In the first six months of this year, compared to the same period last year, the number of liquidations in Kraslava municipality decreased by almost 29 percent.

In the first half of the year, 17 Latvian municipalities had a negative balance of companies, according to Lursoft research data. The second highest number of liquidated companies over newly registered companies was registered in Rezekne municipality, where the number of liquidated companies was 56.2 percent higher than the number of newly registered companies. Ventspils followed - although the number of liquidated companies in Ventspils this year is lower than in the first half of last year, the number of new companies has also decreased. In the first six months of 2025, the number of liquidated companies in this municipality was 51.4 percent higher than the number of new ones.