The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has registered 2,345 new companies in April 2022 raising the total number of registered companies to 168,030. This shows an increase of 7pc as compared to corresponding period last year. The total number of registered companies now stands at 168,030. Total capitalization (paid-up-capital) with regard to newly incorporated companies for April stood at Rs3.1b, said a press release issued by SECP here on Saturday. Foreign investment has been reported in 63 new companies. These companies have foreign investors from Afghanistan, Austria, Azerbaijan, Canada, China, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Germany, Ireland, Jordan, Korea South, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, UAE, UK, Ukraine and the USA. In April, about 65pc companies were registered as private limited companies, while 33pc were registered as single member companies. 2pc were registered as public unlisted companies, not for profit associations, foreign companies and limited liability partnership (LLP). About 99.8pc companies were registered online and 0.02pc companies were registered offline, while 175 foreign users were registered from overseas. The real estate development & construction sector took the lead with incorporation of 434, information technology with 355, trading with 285, services with 195, food and beverages with 93, ecommerce with 88, education with 81, tourism with 75, marketing and advertisement with 64, corporate agricultural farming with 60, engineering with 59, healthcare with 50, pharmaceutical with 48, textile with 45, chemical with 44, logging with 40, mining and quarrying with 39, communication, and transport with 31 each, auto and allied, and power generation with 26 each, cables and electric goods with 22, fuel and energy with 17, broadcasting and telecasting, and paper and board with 16 each, cosmetics and toiletries with 15, arts and culture with 14 and 76 companies were registered in other sectors. As a result of integration of SECP with FBR and various provincial departments, 2,252 companies were registered with FBR for generation of NTN, 58 companies with EOBI, 2 companies with PESSI/SESSI.