ISLAMABAD, Sept 8: The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) registered 410 companies during August 2005, showing an inrease of 86 per cent compared to 220 companies registered the same month of last year, said a press release.

The statement said that of the total companies registered during the month, 402 were limited by shares comprising of 11 public unlisted companies, 377 private companies and 14 single member companies.

Besides these five foreign companies and three not-for-profit associations were also registered.

The Company Registration Office (CRO) Lahore registered the highest number of 171 companies followed by CROs of Karachi and Islamabad with 134 and 75 companies. The CROs of Faisalabad, Multan, Peshawar and Quetta registered seven, five, 13 and five companies each.

Total authorized capital and paid-up capital of the 402 limited by shares companies amounted to Rs8940.2 million and Rs441.25 million. A total of 37 companies had raised their authorized capital during August 2005 with an increment of Rs626.8 million.

A total of 93 companies were registered in the services sector, 55 in trading sector, 25 each in communications and information technology and 24 in real estate development sector.

The 410 new incorporations during August 2005 brought the SECP’s total portfolio of registered corporate sector to 46,609 companies.

Out of these 2,755 were public companies, 42,417 private companies, 294 single member companies, 293 not-for-profit associations, 56 companies limited by guarantee, 176 trade organizations, 613 foreign companies and five companies with unlimited liabilities.

This indicated and increase of nine per cent as compared to 42,675 companies registered up to 31 August, 2004.

The statement said that there was an unprecedented boom in the new incorporation with the SECP as 1,316 companies had so far been registered in only two months of the current financial year.