ISLAMABAD, Jan 8: The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has registered 233 companies during December 2004, showing an increase of 41 per cent as compared to the corresponding month of 2003.

A spokesperson for the commission said here on Saturday that out of the 233 companies registered during last month, 223 were limited by shares, including 203 private companies, eight public unlisted companies and 12 single-member companies. Five foreign companies and five associations not for profit were also registered.

The total authorized capital of the 223 companies limited by shares amounted to Rs3,490.51 million, he said.

The highest number of companies, he observed, were registered at the Company Registrar Office (CRO) Karachi followed by Lahore and Islamabad.

The Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad offices registered 86, 80 and 45 companies respectively, while the CROs of Faisalabad, Quetta, Multan and Peshawar registered 3, 1, 5 and 13 companies respectively.

He said the services sector remained prominent among the newly incorporated entities. In the said sector, 40 companies were registered, followed by 32 companies registered in trading sector and 17 in real estate development sector.

The total number of registered companies as on December 31, last year was 45,028 including 2,816 public companies, 40,930 private companies, 190 single member companies, 283 associations not for profit, 54 companies limited by guarantee, 167 trade organizations, 583 foreign companies and five companies with unlimited liabilities, he said.

"This is an increase of six per cent as compared to 42,437 companies registered up to December 31, 2003", he maintained.

Overall, he said, as many as 2,591 companies were registered during 2004 as against 1,766companies registered during 2003, which showed a 47 per cent increase during the calendar year.