SECP Registers 641 New Companies in May 2016

The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) during the month of May 2016 registered 641 new companies, witnessing an increase of 50 percent as compared to same month of preceding year.

During the first 11 months of current fiscal year (2015-16) SECP registered 5,626 new companies. As compared to the corresponding period last year, it represents a growth of 24 percent.

A growing trend in company incorporation is the direct result of numerous facilitation measures undertaken by the SECP.

Around 88 percent companies have been registered as private limited companies, while around 8 percent companies were registered as single-member companies. Four percent of the companies were registered as public unlisted, associations, not-for-profit and foreign companies.

The trading sector took the lead with the incorporation of 85 companies, followed by services with 67, information technology with 64, construction with 50, tourism with 41, communication with 24, fuel and energy with 22, real estate development and corporate agriculture farming with 21 each, food and beverages with 19, engineering with 18, textile and education with 17 each, broadcasting and telecasting with 16, power generation and pharmaceutical with 14 each, transport with 13, auto and allied with 12, health care with 11 and 95 companies were registered in other sectors.

Moreover, 7 foreign companies were also registered by the CROs in Islamabad, Lahore and Peshawar.

Foreign investment has been reported in 45 new companies. These companies have foreign investors from Afghanistan, Australia, Canada, China, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Malaysia, Thailand, Turkey, UK and the US.

These companies are from auto and allied, cables and electric goods, construction, corporate agricultural farming, education, engineering, food and beverages, fuel and energy, health care, information technology, leather and tanneries, pharmaceutical, power generation, services, steel and allied, tourism, trading, transport and miscellaneous sectors.

During the month, the highest numbers of companies, i.e. 228, were registered at the Company Registration Office (CRO), Islamabad, followed by 200 and 144 companies registered at CROs in Lahore and Karachi respectively. The CROs in Faisalabad, Multan, Peshawar and Sukkur registered 19, 21, 28 and 1 companies respectively.