Cap-Con is an offshore company that entered Macedonia in 2014, with an investment of 5 thousand euros. By the end of 2015, their capital reached 2.6 million euros. It was announced as an American investment for airbags, however, its ownership can be traced first to Bermuda, and then, via Hong Kong, to the Cayman Islands.
In December 2015, the Government i.e. former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, officially announced that the factory had begun with the production of airbag inflators. ARC Automotive Macedonia, an investment of the American company in automotive industry, Cap-Con Automotive Technologies, is worth 18 million dollars.
According to Gruevski, the new factory created 75 jobs, while the investor announced they would open 400 jobs in total.
The available data of the Central Register shows that the company had assets worth 9.6 million euros in 2015 and employed 35 people.
In 2016, the number of employees increased to 144 persons.
"The list of major multinational companies of the world that have their own factories in Macedonia just became longer today with the addition of US investor Cap-Con," said Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski at the ceremony.
"Our plan is to increase production in the coming weeks to 2.5 million units annually. Also, ARC plans to double its capacity over the next six months, and then we would produce between five and six million airbag inflators," said Cap-Con CEO, Ali El-Haj.
In February 2016, media outlets reported that Cap-Con was going to sell its Macedonian factory to a company from Hong Kong.
They reported that the buyer of the factory is Hong Kong Investment Haosheng, which is part of the Jinji Group, and that the company was planning to establish a separate holding company in the Cayman Islands which will acquire 100% of ARC Automotive shares.
Data from the Central Register confirm the same; Cap-Con Automotive Technologies are no longer owners of ARC Automotive, staring from March 2016. The owner of the Macedonian company is Glorious Rich Limited from the Cayman Islands.
The address of this business points to Novasage Incorporations (Cayman) Limited, a company whose base is located in Hong Kong, and is working on opening offshore companies in the British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Delaware, Hong Kong, Seychelles, Singapore etc.
The Cayman Islands, otherwise, are known as an offshore zone where no tax is paid on profits, capital gains or income, and foreign investors do not pay any additional taxes. Therefore, the Cayman Islands are seen as the ideal place to open businesses or hide savings outside the native country.