ISLAMABAD, Oct 8: The upward trends in registration of new companies continued in September 2004 also as 236 companies were registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan under Companies Ordinance, 1984.

It is almost a 48 per cent increase over 160 companies registered in September last year.

According to a press release issued here on Friday, of the 236 companies registered last month, 228 companies were limited by shares, including 11 public unlisted companies, 209 private companies, eight single-member companies, six foreign companies, one association not for profit and one company under section 43.

The highest number of companies registered in September was reported from CRO Lahore followed by Karachi and Islamabad. The Lahore office accounted for 99 companies, or 42 per cent, of the 236 incorporated companies.

Karachi and Islamabad had a total of 66 and 52 companies each. Company registration offices of Faisalabad, Quetta, Multan and Peshawar registered eight, two, five and four companies, respectively.

Total authorized capital of the 228 limited by shares companies registered during September 2004 amounted to Rs3,523m; 209 were private companies having an authorized capital of Rs2,901.7 million; eight single-member Companies with an authorized capital of Rs6.6m; and 11 were public companies with an authorized capital of Rs614.7 million.

The analysis of new registration by sectoral classification in September reveals that the most flourishing sector in terms of number of new registration is the services sector whereby 25 companies were registered, followed by 24 companies registered in information technology and 20 in the trading sector.

The total number of companies at work as on September 30, 2004 was 44,416, including 2,793 public companies, 40,380 private companies, 168 single-member companies, 494 associations not for profit, companies limited by guarantee and trade organizations, 576 foreign companies and five companies with unlimited liabilities. This is an increase of six per cent as compared to 41,993 companies registered up to Sept 30.

The growth in company incorporation characterized the whole of the past year whereby it is observed that the overall expansion is contributed by a 45pc increase during the preceding 12 months in comparison with the previous period.

During the period from Oct 1, 2003 to Sept 30, 2004, the number of new companies registered is 2,416 as against only 1,630 companies registered during the previous 12 months.