HONG KONG - A record high of 150,165 new local companies were registered?in Hong Kong?last year, with an average of more than 12,500 local companies incorporated each month, Hong Kong's Companies Registry said Sunday.

According to the registry's annual statistics, by the end of 2012, the total number of local companies registered under the Companies Ordinance stood at 1,044,644, up 88,252 from 956,392 in 2011.

Registrar of Companies Ada Chung said that a total of 27,319 companies were incorporated online using the one-stop electronic company incorporation and business registration service at the e- Registry, up 79.16 percent over 2011.

For non-Hong Kong companies that have newly established a place of business in Hong Kong, 686 companies were registered under the Companies Ordinance in 2012, 14 percent less than the 798 in 2011. The total number of registered non-Hong Kong companies stood at 8, 848 at the end of last year.