The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) registered 2,617 new companies during September 2024, witnessing an increase of 5.7 percent as compared to the corresponding month of last year. The total number of registered companies now stands at 231,111.

About 55 percent of companies incorporated during the month were registered as private limited companies, while 41 percent were registered as single-member companies. The remaining 4 percent were registered as public unlisted companies, not-for-profit associations, trade organizations (TO), and limited liability partnerships (LLP). Around 99.8 percent of companies were registered online while 0.2 percent were incorporated offline.

The information technology sector took the lead with the incorporation of 410 companies, trading with 377 companies, services with 306, real estate development & construction with 237, tourism and ecommerce with 125 each, food & beverages with 112, education with 101, mining & quarrying with 98, marketing & advertisement with 73, corporate agricultural farming with 60, engineering with 57, healthcare and textile with 49 each, cosmetics & toiletries with 46, chemical with 42, transport with 39, pharmaceutical with 35, power generation 31, fuel & energy with 27, auto & allied with 24, lodging with 21, cables & electric goods with 18, communications with 15, parlor and other related services, and sports -allied with 13 each, steel & allied and arts & culture with 11 each, wood & wood products and paper & board with 10 each, and 82 companies were registered in other sectors.

Foreign investment has been reported in 61 new companies, having foreign investors mainly from Afghanistan, Australia, Cameroon, China, France, Jamaica, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, UK and USA. Major chunk of investment was received from China with 43 companies, Turkey with 04, Afghanistan with 03, Malaysia with 02 and other countries with 01 company each.