ISLAMABAD – In November 2018, the SECP registered 1,060 new companies. As compared to the corresponding month of last financial year, it represents a growth of 20 percent raising the number of registered companies to 93,157. The massive increase is the result of the SECP’s various reforms measures, i.e. introduction of simplified combined process for name reservation and incorporation, reduction of November: fee, the assistance of incorporation by facilitation wings of CROs etc.
Around 72 percent companies were registered as private limited companies, while around 26 percent were registered as single member companies. Two percent were registered as public unlisted, non-profit associations and limited liability partnership (LLP).
The trading sector took the lead with the incorporation of 165 companies, services with 153, construction with 120, I.T. with 117, tourism with 69, real estate development with 37, food and beverages with 35, corporate agricultural farming, education, and marketing and advertisement with 32 each, engineering with 30, transport with 23, fuel and energy with 19, healthcare with 16, textile with 15, auto and allied, communication, logging, mining & quarrying, and pharmaceutical with 14 each, and 95 companies were registered in other sectors.
Foreign investment has been reported in 36 new companies. These companies have foreign investors from, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, China, Denmark, France, Greece, Korea South, Kuwait, Madagascar, Malaysia, Oman, Spain, Turkey, and the UK.
The highest numbers of companies, i.e. 408 were registered in Islamabad, followed by 261 and 201 companies registered in Lahore and Karachi respectively. The CROs in Peshawar, Multan, Faisalabad, Gilgit-Baltistan, Quetta, and Sukkur registered, 62, 58, 30, 23, 13 and 4 companies respectively.
