Starting Points
Official Company Registers www.rba.co.uk/sources/registers.htm
This page lists the official registers or registries, organised by country, with which some forms of companies are required to register and file. A few of the services also provide financials and annual reports if the company is required to file them.
Company registration around the world www.commercial-register.sg.ch/home/worldwide.html
A list of official company registers around the world maintained by the Commercial Register Office of the Canton St. Gallen.
Worldwide Registries www.gov.uk/government/publications/overseas-registries/overseas-registries
A list of official company registers by country provided by Companies House.
Finance Yahoo uk.finance.yahoo.com
Provides access to share prices, key financials and information on stock exchange listed companies, currency exchange rates and news.
International resources
Bureau van Dijk www.bvdinfo.com
The full BvD collection of priced services covers information on companies around the globe. BvD's products include ORBIS, AMADEUS, FAME, BANKSCOPE and MINT. They also produce the mergers and acquisitions database ZEPHYR. There is a free company search option at www.mintbusinessinfo.com that is useful for verifying the existence of a company. Priced service.
CorporateInformation www.corporateinformation.com
Extensive research reports on approximately 35,000 publicly traded companies in over 55 countries. Up to 10 years of sales, earnings and price history, some of which is free of charge. There are also free top 100 lists of companies (under the Tools link) ranked by market capitalisation, sales, operating profit margin, 52 week price change and 3 year sales growth.
Financial Times www.ft.com
Basic background information and selected key financials for quoted companies. Some information is free but access to the full service is available by subscription only.
Hoovers www.hoovers.com
Hoovers provides summary of activities, key current financials, key people, links to the company web site, share prices, and top competitors. The service also provides industry overviews. Some basic information is free but full reports are priced.
Legalinx 7 Side www.7side.co.uk
7 side has a global network of information sources and access to official registration centres and provides access to document filings and freshly investigated reports from over 230 international locations. Priced service.
LexisNexis www.lexisnexis.com
Financial information on companies world-wide from a variety of sources and publishers. Subscription service.
Perfect Information www.perfectinfo.com
Products include Perfect Filings, a global database comprising over 15 million original documents on 50,000 globally listed companies. Content includes global annual and interim reports, US annuals and paper filings, SEC filings, shareholder filings, global bond prospectuses, and company news.
Subscription service
Skyminder www.skyminder.com
Credit and financial information on companies world-wide from a variety of sources. Subscription and pay as you go options.
Thomson Reuters thomsonreuters.com
Thomson Reuters offer a range of financial products and services including news, legal, governance and compliance, tax and accounting. Subscription service.
By country
Europe
UK
Companies House www.gov.uk/government/organisations/companies-house
The official UK body to which UK companies have to send their accounts. The home page has been moved to GOV.UK and there are now two ways to search for company and director information. The WebCHeck services are still at http://wck2.companieshouse.gov.uk/ and the Disqualified Directors Register is at http://wck2.companieshouse.gov.uk//dirsec. Search is free of charge but documents such as annual accounts are priced. The second option is the new beta service at https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/. All information retrieved via this service is free of charge.
Company Check www.companycheck.co.uk
Provides Companies House documents free of charge and sells credit reports. The Company Check free information uses Companies House data and includes name, registered address and number, telephone number, activity, status and a list of directors. It also provides free of charge graphs of cash at bank, net worth, total current liabilities and total current assests (free registration required) and financial data as a table. You can search by company or director name. Clicking on a director's name takes you to a summary of that person's current and past directorships. Credit reports and information on mortgages, charges and CCJs on both companies and directors is priced.
Equifax www.equifax.co.uk
Online credit reports and scores. Priced service.
UK Data www.ukdata.com
UK Data provides pay as you go access to company credit reports and Companies House accounts on all UK and International Ltd Companies. It also offers free alert monitoring of all UK and Irish Ltd companies for changes to their credit scores, filing of accounts, and any county court judgments.
France
Infogreffe - Trade and Companies Register - Commercial Court Registry www.infogreffe.fr/
Information on over 3,200,000 French companies. Basic company information free of charge. Priced service for detailed information and accounts. In French.
Italy
Cerved www.cerved.com
Providers of value-added business information and distributor of official data filed with Italy's Chambers of Commerce. This is a primary source of information about Italian companies. Information provided includes credit reports, company profiles, summary financial statements (balance sheet, profit & loss accounts and ratios), copy of the official accounts as images. More than 4 million Italian companies are covered, of which 600,000 are public and private limited share companies and limited liability companies (Spa & Srl). Payment can be made by credit card or pre-paid Reteaffari contract. Priced service. Available in Italian and English.
Comas Business information - Online credit report - Debt collection www.infocomas.com
Credit reports and business information on Italian companies. The Italian Company Credit Report includes balance sheet items and ratios, risk assessment, bankruptcy evaluation, and expresses the maximum recommended credit limit. The Balance Sheets service provides reclassified balance sheets of Italian companies (such as SRL (LTD) and SPA (PLC)) that contain the main information from official balance sheets filed at the Chambers of Commerce. Debt recovery servicesand company marketing lists are also available. Services available pay as you go or as pre-paid subscription
Latvia
Lursoft www.lursoft.lv
Provides information about all enterprises, public organizations and foreign company agencies registered within the territory of Latvia including their managers, shareholders fixed capital and annual accounts. The information is based on original documents of the Register of Enterprises (RE). In Latvian and English. Basic company information free of charge. Priced service for more detailed information including accounts.
Norway
Brønnøysund Register Centre www.brreg.no
The Brønnøysund Register Centre is a government body under the Norwegian Ministry of Trade and Industry, and consists of several different national EDP registers. These registers contain information and key data on: liabilities and titles in mortgaged movable property; more than 280,000 business enterprises; more than 1,300,000 annual accounts and auditor's reports of limited companies; bankruptcies and compulsory liquidations; approximately 200,000 marriage settlements. In Norwegian and English. Priced service.
US
Annual Reports www.annualreports.com
A free service providing the latest US company annual reports as PDFs or hardcopy and links to the relevant section of the company's web site.
SEC www.sec.gov
The official archive of SEC filings. Since May 1996 all SEC listed companies are required to file electronically.
Canada
SEDAR www.sedar.com
System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval. The electronic filing system for the disclosure documents of public companies and mutual funds across Canada.