ISLAMABAD, Jan 17: The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has registered 315 companies in December last year as compared to 233 companies registered during the corresponding month of 2004, reflecting an increase of 35 per cent.

Of the newly-registered companies, 300 were limited by shares, comprising of 10 public companies, 285 private companies and five single-member companies, showed official statistics issued here on Tuesday.

In addition, eight foreign companies and seven non-profit associations were also registered last month.

The Company Registration Office (CRO) in Lahore registered the highest number of 115 companies, while Karachi and Islamabad offices registered 101 and 64 companies, respectively. CROs in Multan, Faisalabad, Peshawar and Quetta registered 13, 12, eight and two companies, respectively.

A total of 54 companies were registered in the services sector, 36 in trading, 21 in information technology, 15 in communications, 10 in construction, 19 in real estate development, and 14 each in engineering, textile and telecommunications sectors.

Total authorized capital and paid-up capital of the 300 limited by shares companies registered during December 2005 amounted to Rs9.921 billion and Rs466.03 million, respectively. A total of 31 companies also raised their authorized capital by Rs1,475.9 million.

With the incorporation of 315 companies in December 2005, the total number of companies registered with the SECP by the end of calendar year 2005 has reached 4234 as compared to 2583 companies registered by the year 2004, reflecting an increase of 64 per cent.