ISLAMABAD: The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) registered 2,365 new companies in September 2020, indicating an increase of 69 per cent as compared to the corresponding period last year.
Out of these newly registered, 68pc companies were registered as private limited companies, while 29pc were registered as single-member companies and 3pc were registered as public unlisted companies, non-profit associations, under section 43 and limited liability partnership (LLP).
Interestingly, 99pc companies registered themselves online while 40pc of them were registered the same day.
The trading sector took the lead with the incorporation of 414 companies, followed by construction with 294 companies. A total 289 companies were registered in the IT sector, 226 in services, 139 in the real estate, 87 companies in food and beverages, 73 incorporate agricultural farming, 70 in e-commerce and 69 companies were registered in the tourism sector.
Similarly, 63 companies were registered in the education sector, 61 in engineering, 59 in pharmaceutical, 46 in textile, 42 in transport, 38 in marketing and advertisement, 37 in chemical, 28 in logging, 35 in mining & quarrying, 33 in healthcare, 26 companies in each power generation, cables & electric goods, 24 each in fuel & energy, 21 in communications, 19 each in auto & allied and paper/ board, 17 each in broadcasting and telecasting, and cosmetics and toiletries, 14 in steel and allied whereas 73 companies were registered in other sectors.
The highest numbers of companies, i.e. 812, were registered in Islamabad, followed by 764 and 348 companies registered in Lahore and Karachi respectively, while Peshawar, Multan, Faisalabad, Gilgit-Baltistan, Quetta and Sukkur registered 183, 97, 64, 62, 33 and 2 companies, respectively.
Moreover, 43 new companies reported foreign investment from Australia, China, Egypt, Germany, Greece, Iran, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, the UAE, the UK, the US and Yamen during September.
