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Thursday March 28, 2024

Company registration witnesses 44pc growth in H1

By our correspondents
January 10, 2018

ISLAMABAD: The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) registered 4,954 new companies in the current half of fiscal year 2017/18, showing growth of 44 percent when compared to the registrations in the first half of the last financial year.

This raises the total number of registered companies to 83,879 in the SECP database. The massive increase in the number of new companies is the result of the SECP’s various reform measures - simplification of incorporation procedure, reduction in fee, assistance in incorporation by facilitation wings at CROs, etc.

Around 82 percent of companies were registered as private limited companies, while around 16 percent were registered as single-member companies. Two percent of the companies were registered as public unlisted, non-profit associations, trade organisations and foreign companies.

Sectors that registered more than 500 companies include trading, which took the lead with the incorporation of 783 companies, services sector followed with 729 companies, construction 625, and information technology registered 599 companies.

The tourism sector incorporated 274 companies, while food and beverages registered 164 companies. Engineering 155, education 148, corporate agricultural farming 126, real estate development 106, and transport sector added 100 companies with the SECP.

Sectors that incorporated less than 100 companies with the commission include pharmaceutical 86 companies, textile 77, communication 76, fuel and energy 75, auto and allied and healthcare 71 each, cable and electric goods 58, broadcasting and telecasting 57, while the chemical sector registered with 55 companies with the commission. Sectors that registered less than 50 companies in the SECP were power generation that added 47 companies, paper and board that recorded 46 companies, mining and quarrying which listed 45 companies, and steel and allied that registered 38 companies.

The cement sector incorporated only nine companies with the SECP, while 334 companies were registered in other sectors. Moreover, 35 foreign companies were also registered by the CROs in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad.

Foreign investment has been reported in 329 new companies. These companies have foreign investors from Afghanistan, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Canada, Cayman Islands, China, Denmark, Egypt, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, South Korea, Lebanon, Macedonia, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mexico, Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, UAE, UK, Ukraine and US.

During the month, the highest numbers of companies - 1,714 were registered at Islamabad CRO, followed by 1,442 and 987 registered at Lahore and Karachi CROs, respectively.

The CROs in Peshawar, Multan, Faisalabad, Quetta, Gilgit-Baltistan and Sukkur registered 311, 228, 105, 64, 79 and 24 companies respectively.