ISLAMABAD: The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has registered 414 new companies during the month of January. A statement issued by the Commission here Wednesday said that around 91 percent of these were registered as private limited companies, while around 5 percent registered as single member companies, 4 percent of the companies were registered as public unlisted, non-profit associations and foreign companies.
The highest numbers of companies including 138 companies were registered in Islamabad, followed by 123 and 82 companies registered in Lahore and Karachi respectively. The Company Registration Offices (CROs) in Multan, Peshawar, Faisalabad, Quetta and Sukkur registered 28, 18, 17, 7 and 1 companies respectively. The trading sector took the lead with the incorporation of 59 companies, followed by services with 49, tourism with 43, information technology with 36, construction with 20 and corporate agricultural farming with 19 companies.
Chemical, fuel and energy with 13 each, power generation with 12, education with 11 and communication, engineering, healthcare, real estate development and textile with 10 companies each.
Moreover, 6 foreign companies were also registered at the Company Registration Offices (CROs) in Karachi, Islamabad and Lahore. Foreign investment has been witnessed in 22 new companies. These companies have investors from Afghanistan, Australia, China, South Korea, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Spain, the UAE and the US. These companies are from information technology, services, mining and quarrying, power generation, import, export, mineral, textile, engineering, trading, transport, real estate development, corporate agricultural farming and software development sectors.
The returns for an increase in the authorized capital of 71 companies were filed, with the total authorized capital increment of Rs16.67 billion. In addition, 78 companies filed returns for increase in the paid-up capital with the total increment amounting to Rs14.70 billion.
