SECP registers 514 firms in Jan

ISLAMABAD: The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has registered 514 new companies in January, 23 percent more than last year’s same month.

Around 89 percent companies have been registered as private limited companies, while around eight percent as single member companies.

Three percent of the companies were registered as public unlisted, associations’ not-for-profit and foreign companies.

The highest number of companies, ie, 70 was registered in services sector, followed by information technology 55, trading 52, tourism 41, construction 39, food and beverages 24, power generation 23, fuel and energy 18, education 17, real estate development 16, communications 15, corporate agricultural farming 13, pharmaceutical and transport sectors with 12 each. In textile sector 11 companies were been registered and in paper sector the number was 10. Besides, 86 companies were registered in other sectors. Moreover, one foreign company was also registered by the CRO in Karachi.

Foreign investment has been reported in 46 new companies. These companies have foreign investors from China, US, the UK, South Africa, Spain, Turkey, Russia, Australia, Qatar, Singapore, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Philippines, Canada, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Mexico, France and the UAE.

These companies are from trading, auto and allied, healthcare, education, information technology, mining and quarrying, logging, paper and board, fuel and energy, power generation, services, textile, tobacco, transport, construction, tourism, steel and allied, cables and electrical goods and miscellaneous sectors as well.  The highest numbers of companies, ie, 173, were registered at the Company Registration Office (CRO), Islamabad, followed by 149 and 135 companies at CRO Lahore and Karachi, respectively. The CROs in Multan, Peshawar, Faisalabad, Quetta and Sukkur registered 21, 21, 9, 3 and 3, respectively.