In June, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) registered 773 new companies. As compared to the corresponding month of the last financial year, it represents a growth of 28 percent, raising the number of registered companies to 87,622.
The massive increase is the result of SECP’s various reforms, i.e. introduction of a simplified combined process for name reservation and incorporation, reduction in fee, the assistance of incorporation by facilitation wings at CROs etc.
Around 77 percent of companies were registered as private limited companies, while around 21 percent were registered as single-member companies. Two percent were registered as public unlisted, non-profit associations, foreign companies and limited liability partnerships (LLPs).
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The services sector took the lead with the incorporation of 113 companies, trading with 104, I.T. with 94, construction 82, tourism with 37, food and beverages 28, real estate development 27, engineering 22, broadcasting and telecasting, education, and marketing and advertisement with 19 each, corporate agricultural farming with 17, transport, auto and allied and textile with 16 each, pharmaceutical 15, communication 12, health care and logging with 11 each, and 95 companies were registered in other sectors. Moreover, two foreign companies were also registered by the Karachi CRO.
Foreign investment has been reported in 39 new companies. These companies have foreign investors from Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, Jordan, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Syria, the UK and the US.
The highest numbers of companies, i.e. 261 were registered in Lahore, followed by 255 and 153 registered in Islamabad and Karachi respectively. The CROs in Peshawar, Multan, Faisalabad, Gilgit-Baltistan, Quetta, and Sukkur registered 30, 27, 17, 12, 10 and 8 companies respectively.
