Number of companies registered with SECP stand at 77,473

The number of companies registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) stand at 77,473 till February 2017. Sources toldBusiness Recorder here on Tuesday that the year-wise data revealed the number of registered companies stood at 59,417 in 2011-12; 62,253 in 2012-13; 64,067 in 2013-14; 67,624 in 2014-15 and total number of registered companies increased to 73,207 in 2015-16.
During 2015-16, 851 annual audited financial statements of listed, unlisted and private companies having paid-up capital of Rs 100 million and above and companies registered under Section 42 and 43 to the Companies Ordinance were examined and explanations with regard to various violations observed during the examination of the audited financial statements were sought. The summary given below reflects increased compliance level by the companies owing to the stringent regulatory actions taken by the Commission over the years.
During the period of 2015-16, 6,200 new companies were registered. As compared with the corresponding period of last financial year, a growth of 24 per cent has been witnessed. This has raised the total number of registered companies to 73,207. The trend witnessed in formation of companies was that approximately 90 per cent companies were registered as private limited companies, and 7 per cent were registered as single-member companies. Three per cent were registered as public unlisted, non-profit associations, under section 43, trade organisations and foreign companies.
The trading sector took a lead with the incorporation of 777 companies, followed by services with 770, information technology with 586, construction with 517, tourism with 433, food and beverages with 199, power generation with 192, communications with 188, corporate agricultural farming with 181, fuel and energy with 173, education with 166, real estate development with 165, broadcasting and telecasting with 162, textile with 148, pharmaceutical and engineering with 145 each, transport with 134, healthcare with 110 and 1009 companies in other sectors.
Foreign investment has been reported in 389 new companies. These companies have foreign investors from Afghanistan, Australia, Bahrain, Belgium, Bosnia Herzegovina, Myanmar, Canada, Cayman Islands, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, South Korea, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Philippines, Qatar, Russia, the Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, the UAE, the UK and the US. Moreover, 54 foreign companies from Australia, Canada, China, Egypt, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, South Korea, the Netherlands, Qatar, the Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, the UAE, the UK and the US have established places of business in Pakistan during the last fiscal year. These companies are engaged in the fields of cable and electric goods, communication, construction, engineering, services, power generation, trading, fuel and energy, information technology, steel and allied and other sectors, the SECP data added.