KARACHI: The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) during the month of November 2017 registered 881 new companies. As compared to the corresponding month of last fiscal year, it represents a growth of 40 per cent. The new incorporation raised the total number companies registered with SECP to 84,201.
The massive increase in the number of new companies is the direct result of various reforms measures introduced by the SECP i.e. simplification of incorporation procedure, reduction of the fee, the assistance of incorporation by facilitation wings of CROs etc.
Around 82 per cent companies were registered as private limited companies, while around 16 per cent companies were registered as single member companies. Around 2 per cent of the companies were registered as public unlisted, association not for profit, under section 43, trade organisation and foreign companies.
The services sector took the lead with the incorporation of 134 companies, trading with 118, construction with 107, information technology with 91, tourism with 52, engineering with 38, education with 29, food and beverages with 28, real estate development and corporate agricultural farming with 22 each, textile with 20, healthcare with 18, pharmaceutical and transport with 16 each, auto & allied and cable and electric goods with 11 each and 148 companies were registered in other sectors. Moreover, 5 foreign companies were also registered by the CROs in Karachi and Islamabad.
Foreign investment has been reported in 47 new companies. These companies have foreign investors from, Afghanistan, Australia, Canada, China, Italy, Korea (south), Lebanon, Macedonia, Mauritius, Mexico, Poland, Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland, the UK and the US.
During the month, the highest numbers of companies, i.e. 309 were registered at the Company Registration Office (CRO), Islamabad, followed by 253 and 165 companies registered at CRO Lahore and Karachi respectively. The CROs in Peshawar, Multan, Faisalabad, Quetta, Gilgit-Baltistan and Sukkur registered 51, 44, 20, 11, 20 and 8 companies respectively.
