SECP Registers 2,349 New Companies in February 2022

The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) registered 2,349 new companies in February 2022, raising the total number of registered companies to 163,333. According to details, the accumulated capitalization (paid-up-capital) of newly incorporated companies now stands at Rs. 2.2 billion. For February, foreign investment was reported via 50 new companies. These companies have foreign investors from Afghanistan, Bahrain, Burma (Myanmar), China, Cyprus, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea South, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, the Netherlands, Niger, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Yemen. To facilitate investors, the SECP has also set up a designated help desk to facilitate investors from China. The Chinese help desk, staffed with a team proficient in Mandarin, aims to provide requisite support to Chinese investors in the registration of their businesses in Pakistan. Besides, Company Incorporation Guide in Chinese, Turkish, Arabic, Urdu, and Spanish languages are also available on SECP’s website. In February, about 62 percent of companies were registered as private limited companies, while 35 percent were registered as single-member companies. The remaining three percent of companies were registered as public unlisted companies, not-for-profit associations, trade organizations, foreign companies, and limited liability partnerships (LLPs). About 99.5 percent of companies were registered online and 236 foreign users were registered from overseas. The real estate development and construction sector took the lead with 453 incorporations, followed by information technology with the registration of 334 firms, trading 287 firms, services 221, education 106, commerce 91, marketing and advertisement 77, food and beverages and textile 73, tourism 65, corporate agricultural farming 54, healthcare 49, engineering 47, transport 38, pharmaceutical 34, power generation 31, lodging 28, chemical 27, communications 26, paper and board 25, mining and quarrying 24, cosmetics and toiletries 20, cables and electric goods 18, auto and allied 17, fuel and energy 16, broadcasting and telecasting 13, steel and allied 12 and other sectors 90. The SECP recently integrated its eServices with the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and various provincial departments, and as a result, 2,320 companies were registered with the tax machinery, 54 companies with the Employees Old-age Benefits Institution, 15 companies with Punjab Employees Social Security Institution/Sindh Employees Social Security Institution, and 30 companies with the Excise and Taxation Department.