ISLAMABAD: The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) registered 2,234 new companies in November 2023, showing a growth of 8 percent during first five months of the current financial year against the same period of last fiscal year.
The total number of registered companies now stands at 207,654. Total capitalization (paid-up-capital) with regard to newly incorporated companies for the current month stood at Rs. 7.74 billion.
About 58% companies were registered as private limited companies, while 39 % were registered as single member companies. The remaining 03% were registered as public unlisted companies, not for profit associations, trade organizations and limited liability partnerships (LLP) and Foreign Companies.
SECP registers 27,746 new companies in FY 2022-23
Two foreign companies have also established place of business in Pakistan. Almost 99.6 percent companies were registered online while 0.4% were incorporated offline. Around 116 foreign applicants were registered from overseas through eServices.
The information technology and trading sectors took the lead with incorporation of 313 companies each , services with 271, real estate development & construction with 243, tourism with 106, food & beverages with 83, education with 76, mining & quarrying with 67, marketing & advertisement with 56, corporate agricultural farming with 52, transport and engineering with 51 each, ecommerce and power generation with 48 each, pharmaceutical with 41, textile with 38, chemical with 35, fuel and energy with 32, healthcare with 29, broadcasting & telecasting with 26, lodging with 25, cosmetics & toiletries with 19, communications and paper & board with 12 each, cables & electrical goods with 11 and 176 companies were registered in other sectors.
As a result of integration of SECP with FBR and various provincial departments, 2,169 companies were registered with FBR for registration of NTN, 57 companies with EOBI, 39 companies with PESSI/SESSI and 38 companies with excise and taxation department.
Foreign investment has been reported in 72 new companies, having foreign investors from Afghanistan, Australia, Azerbaijan, China, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Iran, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mongolia, the Netherlands, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, UAE, UK, and the USA.
Major chunk of investment was received from China with 44 companies, Turkey with 04, Azerbaijan with 03, Afghanistan, Germany, Malaysia, Netherlands and US with 02 each, and in 11 companies from other countries.
The SECP has also a dedicated WhatsApp facility for instant resolution of the queries pertaining to name availability and incorporation process and during this month, around 1,172 queries were responded.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023