ISLAMABAD: The registration of new companies increased 11 per cent in July this year as the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) registered 386 new firms during the corresponding month.
The commission registered 348 companies during the corresponding period last year. Out of 386 companies registered during July 2015, around 86 percent of companies have been registered as private limited companies, while around 9 percent were registered as single-member companies. Five percent of the companies were registered as public unlisted, non-profit associations, trade organisations and foreign companies.
The services sector took the lead with the incorporation of 58 companies, followed by trading with 48, information technology with 38, tourism with 27, construction with 26, engineering with 14, corporate agricultural farming with 13, textile with 12, communications and education with 11 each and power generation with 10 companies. Moreover, 4 foreign companies were also registered by the CROs in Islamabad, Karachi and Lahore.
Foreign investment has been reported in 20 new companies. These companies have foreign investors from Afghanistan, Australia, China, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Libya, New Zealand, Norway, Qatar, Singapore, South Korea, Tunisia, the US and UK. These companies are from auto and allied, communications, food and beverages, information technology, power generation, real estate development, services, trading and transport sectors.
During the year, the highest numbers of companies, i.e. 136, were registered at the Company Registration Office (CRO), Lahore, followed by 106 and 86 registered at CRO Islamabad and Karachi respectively. The CROs in Multan, Faisalabad, Peshawar, Quetta and Sukkur registered 25, 13, 9, 8 and 3 companies respectively.
