ISLAMABAD: The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has registered 521 new companies in March 2015, witnessing an increase of 24 percent as compared to same period of last year.
A statement issued by the Commission here Thursday said that SECP has registered 3,588 new companies during the first three quarters of the current fiscal year.
In the new incorporation, around 88 percent companies have been registered as private limited companies, around 8 percent companies were registered as single member companies and 4 percent of total incorporated companies were registered as public unlisted and associations’ not-for-profit.
The services sector took lead in new incorporation with 76 companies, followed by trading with 54, information technology with 46, construction with 43, tourism and with 39 and corporate agricultural farming with 25.
Moreover, 21 companies were registered in the education sector, 20 in pharmaceutical , 15 in real estate development, and 14 each in communications, food and beverages and fuel and energy sectors.
This was followed by healthcare sector with 13 companies, power generation with 12, paper and board and textile with 11 each and transport with 10 companies. Moreover, three foreign companies were also registered in Karachi and Islamabad.
Foreign investment has been reported in 20 new companies. These companies have foreign investors from Afghanistan, Australia, China, Denmark, Egypt, Germany, Palestine, Singapore, Spain, Sri Lanka, Turkmenistan, UK and the US.
These companies are from import/export, food and beverages, construction, transport, education, information technology, internet service provider, trading, sugar and allied, services sectors.
The highest number of companies, 169, were registered at the Company Registration Office (CRO), Islamabad, followed by 153 and 118 companies registered at CRO Lahore and Karachi, respectively. The CROs in Multan, Peshawar, Faisalabad, Quetta and Sukkur registered 37, 21, 13, 8 and 2 companies, respectively.
In March, 237 companies filed returns for an increase in the authorised capital, with total authorised capital increment of Rs 37.7 billion. In addition to that, 147 companies filed returns for increase in the paid-up capital with total increment amounting to Rs 9.96 billion.
