ISLAMABAD, Aug 5: The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) registered a record number of 906 companies in July 2005, which is four times higher compared to 239 companies registered the same month last year. The unprecedented boom in new incorporations is due to the steps taken by the SECP to restore investor confidence and facilitate corporatization.

Of the 906 companies registered by the SECP in July 2005, 901 were limited by shares, comprising three public unlisted companies, 859 private companies and 39 single member companies. Besides one foreign company and four not-for-profit associations were also registered.

The Company Registration Office (CRO) at Karachi registered the highest number of 302 companies, a record registration during one month by any CRO in the country. Lahore and Islamabad CROs followed with registering 224 and 190 companies respectively, while CROs at Peshawar, Quetta, Multan, Faisalabad and Sukkur registered 85, 42, 41, 21 and one company respectively.

Last month, 582 Haj and Umra operators were registered as companies. A total of 55 companies were registered in trading sector, 29 in communications and 28 in textile sector. Total authorized capital and paid-up capital of the 901 limited by shares companies amounted to Rs5.581 billion and Rs722.8 million, respectively.

Moreover, a total of 39 companies raised their authorized capital during the month with an increment of Rs6.431 billion. The new incorporations during July 2005 brought the SECP’s total portfolio of registered corporate sector to 46,209 companies.

The pace of new incorporations has shown an accelerated growth momentum during the previous month with average monthly incorporation exceeding 200 companies since March 2004.

This is for the first time in the corporate history of the country that such a high number of new companies have been registered during a single month. To draw a comparison, only 968 total companies were registered during the whole of the financial year 1998-99.