Even though the general impression is that the pace of economic activities is slowing due to number of reasons, like persistent economic crisis and political instability but the new companies registration data of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) shows that it has increased 13 percent with total registration of 2,666 companies in the July March period this fiscal year as compared to registration of 2,360 companies during the corresponding period of last fiscal year.
According to the data of SECP, the registration of new companies went up by 5 percent in March as 370 companies were registered as compared to 353 companies registered during the previous month. Private companies have the highest share in new incorporations totaling to 340 followed by 20 single-member companies, 5 public unlisted companies, 3 non-profit associations and 2 foreign companies.
Of the 2 foreign companies, one belonging to China was registered in Karachi while the other belonging to the US was registered in Lahore. Foreign investment by nationals from Canada, UAE, Japan, UK, China, Panama and AJK has been witnessed in 8 new local companies. Of these, 6 companies are registered at Islamabad and 1 company each at Lahore and Karachi. Two companies are from the services sector while one each are registered in health, IT, mining, oil and gas exploration, glass and ceramics, and hajj and umrah services each.
The sector-wise breakdown shows that with 46 companies the services sector has the highest share in new incorporations, followed by trading with 40 companies, IT, with 36 companies, hajj and umrah services with 33 companies, construction with 19 companies, food and beverages with 17 companies, communications with 15 companies, tourism with 13 companies, engineering with 12 companies, textile, pharmaceuticals, and broadcasting and telecasting with 11 companies each, transport, and fuel and energy with 9 companies each, corporate agricultural farming, healthcare, and auto and allied with 7 companies each, mining and quarrying with 6 companies and power generation, paper and board, and finance and banking with 5 companies each.
The Company Registration Offices (CROs) in Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad registered 115, 109 and 100 companies respectively. The remaining CROs of Peshawar, Multan, Quetta and Faisalabad registered 21, 10, 8 and 7 companies respectively.
The authorized capital and paid-up capital of 370 companies, is Rs 4.02 billion and Rs 774.72 million respectively. During the month, 189 companies increased their authorized capital with the aggregate authorized capital increment of Rs 8.12 billion and 131 companies raised their paid-up capital with the total paid-up capital increment amounting to Rs 5.87billion.
