The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) registered 2,864 new companies in July 2024, marking a 25 percent increase from the same month last year, the highest ever recorded in a single month.

This surge brings the total number of registered companies to 225,561.

Approximately 58 percent of the new incorporations were private limited companies, 39 percent were single-member companies, and the remaining 3 percent comprised public unlisted companies, not-for-profit associations, trade organizations, and limited liability partnerships. Notably, 99.8 percent of these companies were registered online.

The information technology sector led the way with 471 new companies, followed by trading with 364, services with 362, real estate development & construction with 284, tourism with 164, food & beverages with 139, eCommerce with 120, education with 111, textile with 65, marketing & advertisement with 64, corporate agricultural farming with 63, chemical with 53, and healthcare and power generation with 51 each.

Other sectors also saw significant activity: cosmetics & toiletries and mining & quarrying each registered 47 companies, fuel & energy 46, engineering 43, pharmaceutical 40, transport 32, auto & allied 27, communications 23, cables & electric goods 22, arts & culture 18, paper & board and sports-allied 17 each, logging 16, and 107 companies in various other sectors.

Foreign investment was reported in 86 new companies, with investors hailing from Afghanistan, Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, Azerbaijan, Canada, China, Germany, Greece, Iraq, Italy, The Netherlands, Poland, Qatar, Russia, Sri Lanka, Turkey, the UK, the US, and Zambia.

The majority of foreign investment came from China, which invested in 64 companies. Turkey invested in three companies, while Afghanistan and the UK each invested in two, and the remaining countries in one each.