The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has registered 494 new companies in November 2015, indicating an increase of 57 percent as compared to same period last year. During November, around 90 percent companies were registered as private limited companies, seven percent companies got registration as single member companies and three percent of the companies were registered as public unlisted, associations' not-for-profit and foreign companies.
The trading sector took the lead with the incorporation of 74 companies, followed by services with 63, tourism with 45, information technology with 38, construction with 36, power generation with 23, pharmaceutical with 17, communications with 15, transport with 12, broadcasting and telecasting and real estate development with 11 each, education with 10 and 139 companies registered in other sectors. Moreover, 2 foreign companies were also registered by the CRO in Karachi.
Foreign investment has been reported in 30 new companies. These companies have foreign investors from Afghanistan, Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Jordan, Peru, Turkey, UAE, UK and the USA. These companies relates to cables and electric goods, communications, construction, food and beverages, information technology, mining and quarrying, power generation, services, trading and transport sectors.
During the month, the highest numbers of companies, ie 148, were registered at the Company Registration Office (CRO), Karachi, followed by 143 and 136 companies registered at CRO Lahore and Islamabad respectively. The CROs in Multan, Peshawar, Faisalabad, Quetta and Sukkur registered 21, 20, 14, 8 and 4 companies respectively.