Going up: 521 entities incorporated in March

SECP witnesses an increase of 24% as compared to the same period last year.

ISLAMABAD: The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has registered 521 companies in March 2015, witnessing an increase of 24% as compared to the same period last year. A statement issued by the commission on Thursday said that the SECP has registered 3,588 companies during the first three quarters of the current fiscal year.

Around 88% of the companies have been registered as private limited companies, around 8% were registered as single member companies and the remaining were registered as public unlisted, associations’ not-for-profit, under section 43 and foreign companies.

The services sector took the lead in new incorporations with 76 companies, followed by trading (54), information technology (46), construction (43) and tourism (39). Twenty-one were incorporated in education, pharmaceutical (20), real estate development (15), communications, food and beverages and fuel and energy with 14 apiece.

Foreign investment has been reported in 20 new companies. These companies have investors from Afghanistan, Australia, China, Denmark, Egypt, Germany, Palestine, Singapore, Spain, Sri Lanka, Turkmenistan, UK and the US.

These companies are from the import/export, food and beverages, construction, transport, education, information technology, internet service provider, trading, sugar and allied, services sectors.

The highest numbers of companies, including 169, were registered at the Company Registration Office (CRO), Islamabad, followed by 153 and 118 companies registered at CRO Lahore and Karachi respectively.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 10^th,  2015.

Like Business on Facebook, follow @TribuneBiz on Twitter to stay informed and join in the conversation.