Trading sector takes lead with 266 new registrations, followed by construction sector with 186 and IT sector with 183

ISLAMABAD: The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) had registered 1,525 new companies in the month of July 2019.

As compared to the corresponding month of the last financial year, it represents a growth of 41pc, raising the number of total registered companies to 102,864.

Around 71pc companies were registered as private limited companies, while around 25pc were registered as single-member companies, a statement issued by the commission read.

Four per cent were registered as public unlisted companies, not for profit associations, foreign companies and limited liability partnerships whereas 96pc of these companies were registered by using online facility including applications received from overseas subscribers through eService and around 49pc of these companies were registered on the same day.

The SECP also upgraded its browser’s compatibility and now in addition to internet explorer, other browsers like Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and microsoft Edge, Safari and Opera can be used for name reservation and company incorporation process.

The trading sector took the lead with 266 new registrations, followed by the construction sector with 186, information technology with 183, services sector with 177, tourism with 69, real estate development with 59, food and beverages with 56, engineering with 44, education 43, marketing & advertisement 40, textile with 39, corporate agricultural farming with 36, pharmaceutical with 30, healthcare with 29, transport with 28, chemical with 27, mining and quarrying with 24.

The companies registered including communication with 21, auto and allied with 18, fuel and energy with 16, logging with 14, broadcasting and telecasting with 12, paper & board, and power generation with 11 each and 86 companies were registered in other sectors.

Foreign investment has been reported in 58 new companies. These companies have foreign investors from Australia, Austria, Canada, China, Denmark, Germany, Hong Kong, Iran, Italy, Korea South, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Sweden,, Turkey, the UAE the UK and the US.

The highest numbers of companies, 603, were registered in Company Registration Office-Islamabad, followed by 378 and 283 companies in Lahore and Karachi respectively.

The company registration offices in Peshawar, Multan, Faisalabad, Gilgit-Baltistan, Quetta, and Sukkur registered 100, 76, 41, 27, 10 and 7 companies respectively.