ISLAMABAD: The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) registered 2,864 new companies in July 2024 with incorporation of 471 information technology companies.

According to an announcement of the SECP on Monday, this reflected an increase of 25% from the corresponding month last year and marked the highest number of companies ever registered in a month. The total number of registered companies now stands at 225,561.

About 58% of companies incorporated in July, 2024 were registered as private limited companies, 39% as single-member companies, and the remaining 39% as public unlisted companies, not-for-profit associations, trade organisations, and limited liability partnerships. As much as 99.8% of companies were registered online.

The information technology sector took the lead with incorporation of 471 companies, trading with 364 companies, services with 362, real estate development & construction with 284, tourism with 164, food & beverages with 139, ecommerce with 120, education with 111, textile with 65, marketing & advertisement with 64, corporate agricultural farming with 63, chemical with 53, healthcare, and power generation 51 each.

Furthermore, cosmetics & toiletries, mining & quarrying with 47 each, fuel & energy with 46, engineering with 43, pharmaceutical with 40, transport with 32, auto & allied with 27, communications with 23, cables & electric goods with 22, arts & culture with 18, paper & board, and sports-allied with 17 each, logging with 16, and 107 companies were registered in other sectors.

Foreign investment has been reported in 86 new companies mainly by foreign investors from Afghanistan, Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, Azerbaijan, Canada, China, Germany, Greece, Iraq, Italy, The Netherlands, Poland, Qatar, Russia, Sir Lanka, Turkey, UK, US and Zambia. The major chunk of investment was received from China’s investment in 64 companies, whereas Turkey invested in 03, Afghanistan, and UK in 2 each and remaining countries in 01 each.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024