In May, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) registered 1,323 new companies.
As compared to the corresponding month of last financial year, it represents a 21 percent growth, raising the number of registered companies to 100532, a landmark achievement. The massive increase is the result of the SECP’s various reforms, i.e. introduction of simplified combined process for name reservation and incorporation, one window facility for company incorporation along with NTN generation, reduction in fee and assistance provided by facilitation wings at major CROs.
Around 73 percent companies were registered as private limited companies, while around 24 percent were registered as single-member companies. Three percent were registered as public unlisted companies, nonprofit associations, foreign companies and limited liability partnerships (LLPs). Around 55 percent of the companies were registered the same day.
The SECP has upgraded its browser’s compatibility and now in addition to Internet Explorer, other browsers such as Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Edge, Safari and Opera can be used for name reservation and company incorporation.
The trading sector took the lead with the incorporation of 199 companies. It was followed by services with 162, I.T. with 153, construction with 136, tourism with 74, food and beverages with 59, corporate agricultural farming with 56, real estate development with 55, education with 41, marketing/advertisement, textile with 40 and engineering with 29. Twenty-three companies belong to the pharmaceutical sector, 21 to transport, 19 each to logging and mining/quarrying, 18 to fuel and energy, 15 each to broadcasting, and healthcare, auto and allied, 13 to chemical, 12 cosmetics and toiletries, 11 each to communication and power generation. Eighty-seven companies were registered in other sectors.
Foreign investment has been reported in 67 new companies. These companies have foreign investors from Bahrain, Chile, China, France, Germany, Indonesia, Iraq, Japan, Jordan, Korea South, Kuwait, Lebanon, Nigeria, Norway, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sri Lanka, Turkey, UK and the US.
The highest numbers of companies, i.e. 500 were registered in Islamabad, followed by 362 and 231 companies registered in Lahore and Karachi respectively. The CROs in Peshawar, Multan, Faisalabad, Gilgit-Baltistan, Quetta and Sukkur registered, 74, 60, 48, 37, 9 and 2 companies respectively.
