A total of 219 companies were registered with the Securities and Exchange commission of Pakistan (SEC) during January 2005, as compared to 187 companies registered during the corresponding month of the previous year, showing an increase of 17 percent. Among the total registered companies, 207 were limited by shares, including 7 public unlisted companies, 193 private companies, seven single member companies, six foreign companies, four associations not for profit, one company limited by guarantee and one Trade Organisation.

The Company Registration Office (CRO) Karachi, incorporated 80 companies, while CROs Lahore and Islamabad registered 76 and 44 companies each. The CROs Faisalabad, Quetta, Multan, Peshawar and Sukkur registered five, two, five, six and one company respectively.

Total authorised capital of the 207 limited by shares companies amounted to Rs 3,382.70 million. Out of these, 193 were private companies having authorised capital of Rs 2,762.9 million, and seven were public companies with an authorised capital of Rs 597.5 million.

The most flourishing sector in terms of number of new registration was services sector whereby 39 companies were registered, followed by 24 companies registered in trading and 15 in real estate development sector.

The total number of companies at work as on January 31, 2005 was 45,165 including 2,811 public companies, 41,057 private companies, 197 single member companies, 285 associations not for profit, 55 companies limited by guarantee, 167 trade organisation, 588 foreign companies and 5 companies with unlimited liabilities. This is an increase of six percent as compared to 42,542 companies registered up to January 31, 2004.

The number of new companies registered during the period from January 1, 2004 to December 31, 2004 reached a new record of 2,591 as against only 1,766 companies registered during 2003, reflecting a 47 percent increase during the calendar year and 219 companies registered during January, 2005 with an increase of 17 percent as compared to the corresponding period in the previous year. This brought the Commission's total portfolio of registered corporate sector to 45,165 companies as on January 31, 2005.

The number of new registration every month has been increasing at a considerable pace and marked with an average new incorporation exceeding 200 companies continuously from the month of March 2004. The corporate sector has maintained a similar trend in the beginning of this year with 219 new registrations in the month of January 2005, far surpassing the comparative registration figure of the previous year.-PR

Copyright Business Recorder, 2005