Pakistan registered 5,626 new companies in the past 11 months

The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has registered 5,626 new companies in the current fiscal year 2015 – 2016. This represents a growth of 24% as compared to that of the same period last year.

The current fiscal year has seen a growing trend that was absent in the previous one. In the month of May alone, 641 new companies were registered – an increase of 50% from that of May 2015. The highest, 228 new companies were registered at the Company Registration Office (CRO) Islamabad, followed by 200 at Lahore, 144 at Karachi, 19 at Faisalabad, 21 at Multan, 28 at Peshawar and 1 at Sukkur. This growth trend is being attributed to the new facilitation measures undertaken by the SECP.

Around 88% registered companies were private limited, 8% were registered as single-member companies and 4%were registered as public unlisted. Out of all the registered companies, the trading sector took a lead with 85 companies, followed by the Services sector at 67 and Information Technology at 64. A considerable amount of companies were also opened up in the Real Estate development, Corporate Agriculture, Food and Beverages, Fuel and Energy, Textile, Education, Broadcasting and Telecasting.

Interestingly, 7 foreign companies were also registered by CRO’s in Islamabad, Lahore and Peshawar. Furthermore, 45 companies received foreign investment from Afghanistan, Australia, Canada, China, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Malaysia, Thailand, Turkey, UK, and the US.

Source – The Nation