ISLAMABAD: The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) registered 521 new companies in March 2015, witnessing an increase of 24 per cent as compared to same period of last year.

The SECP registered 3,588 new companies during the first three quarters of current fiscal year.

In the new incorporations, around 88pc companies have been registered as private limited companies, around 8pc as single member companies and 4pc of total incorporated companies were registered as public unlisted, associations’ not-for-profit, under section 43 and foreign companies.

The services sector took lead in new incorporations as 76 companies were listed, followed by trading 54, information technology 46, construction 43, tourism 39, corporate agricultural farming 25, education 21, pharmaceutical 20, real estate development 15, communications, food and beverages and fuel and energy 14 each, healthcare 13, power generation 12, paper and board and textile 11 each and transport 10 companies.

Moreover, three foreign companies were also registered in Karachi and Islamabad.

Foreign investment has been reported in 20 new companies. These companies have foreign investors from Afghanistan, Australia, China, Denmark, Egypt, Germany, Palestine, Singapore, Spain, Sri Lanka, Turkmenistan, UK and the US. These companies are from import/export, food and beverages, construction, transport, education, information technology, internet service provider, trading, sugar and allied, services sectors.

The highest number of 169 companies was registered at the Company Registration Office (CRO), Islamabad, followed by 153 and 118 companies registered at CRO Lahore and Karachi, respectively. The CROs in Multan, Peshawar, Faisalabad, Quetta and Sukkur registered 37, 21, 13, 8 and two companies, respectively.

Published in Dawn, April 10th, 2015

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