ISLAMABAD, July 12: The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has registered 1,733 companies during the last quarter of the current financial year. According to official figures released here on Thursday out of the total new incorporations in April-June 2007, some 531 companies were registered in the month of April, 647 in May and 555 in June.

Of these, 1,707 companies were limited by shares comprising of 30 public unlisted companies, 1,622 private companies and 55 single member companies. In addition, 14 foreign companies, 11 associations not for profit and a private unlimited company were also registered.

Total authorised capital and paid up capital of the companies limited by shares amounted to Rs82.436 billion and Rs63.256 billion, respectively.

The Company Registration Office (CRO), Lahore, registered 460 companies, Karachi 425 companies, Islamabad 335 companies and Peshawar 262 companies. The CROs at Multan, Quetta, Faisalabad and Sukkur registered 98, 91, 52 and 10 companies, respectively.

The highest number of 834 companies was registered in the services sector, 124 in trading sector, 84 in communication, 75 in real estate development, 73 in construction, 69 in information technology, 47 in tourism, 44 in food and beverages and 33 in chemical and pharmaceutical sector.

With the new enrolment, the number of companies registered with the SECP in financial year 2006-07 has reached 4,703 and the total corporate portfolio as on June 30, 2007 reached 52,951 registered entities.

“The SECP encourages corporatisation of businesses to contribute towards the progressive development of the economy and healthy growth of corporate sector of the country,” the commission spokesman said.