Australian Securities & Investments Commission:
Provides Australian companies’ data.Bulgaria
http://www.apis.bg
http://www.daxy.com
http://www.apis.bg/en/index.php
http://www.is-bg.net/frames.php
http://www.ciela.net/home_e.aspFinland
For Finland, you can browse companies at the official
trade registry's site:
http://www.ytj.fi/english/default.asp?path=605
The search page:
http://www.ytj.fi/english/Yrit_sel2.asp?kielikoodi=3&path=605
(don't forget to specify the "company form", for example for Nokia it should be "public limited company").This database does not give you financial records. For those, you need to turn to commercial providers, either Suomen Asiakastieto, which has an English language service (online payment with Visa possible) at:
http://www.asiakastieto.fi/en/index.shtml or
TietoEnator's ePortti, which is only in Finnish:
https://eportti.tietopalvelut.com/Montenegro
ON-LINE and OFF-LINE(possibilities of buying CDs that contain companies registrations up to a date,: REGISTRIES OF COMMERCE, BUSINESS REGISTRATIONS, web sites
Central Registry of the Trade Court in Podgorica
http://www.crps.cg.yu/home.php?akcija=registar
Ministry of Finance, Register of the Real Estate
http://www.nekretnine.cg.yu/katpod.php
ON-LAND: Courts for getting data on NGOs etc, other means of getting information
OTHER RESOURCES
There is legally FOI since the end of 2005, but there are many objections.
The greatest number of objections were related to the provisions regulated the restrictions to access to information. Article 9 of the Law provides that the access to information may be restricted if the disclosure could jeopardize national security, defense and international relations, public safety and security, commercial, economic private and public interests, privacy of the individuals, etc.
Montenegro is one of the last countries in the region of SEE that adopted a Law on Free Access to Information.Serbia
ON-LINE and OFF-LINE(possibilities of buying CDs that contain companies registrations up to a date,: REGISTRIES OF COMMERCE, BUSINESS REGISTRATIONS, web sites
Serbian Chamber of Commerce
http://regpr.komora.net/Default.aspx?tabid=55
Registry of Business Entities
http://www.apr.sr.gov.yu/RepsisPublicSite/Search/GeneralEnterpriseSearch.aspx?lngrnd=554848326
List of active NGOs in Serbia
http://www.proconcept.org.yu/upitnik/indexEn.php
ON-LAND: Courts for getting data on NGOs etc, other means of getting information
OTHER RESOURCES
There is legally FOI since 2004, but there are still problems with the implementation.
http://www.companieshouse.co.uk/
BelgiumThis is the Belgian website with basic company information:
http://www.mineco.fgov.be/redir_new.asp?loc=/enterprises/crossroads_bank/home_fr.htm
Another website providing images of company documents in Dutch and French.
http://www.ejustice.just.fgov.be/tsv/tsvf.htm
ON-LINE and OFF-LINE(possibilities of buying CDs that contain companies registrations up to a date,: REGISTRIES OF COMMERCE, BUSINESS REGISTRATIONS, web sites
No CDs available
Croatian Chamber of Commerce
http://www2.hgk.hr/en/
Cadastral and Land Registry Browser
http://www.uredjenazemlja.hr/info.do
Registar of NGOs
http://www.rec-croatia.hr/eng/udruge.php#
ON-LAND: Courts for getting data on NGOs etc, other means of getting information
N/A
OTHER RESOURCES
FOI in Croatia since 2003
More information on the Act
http://www.gong.hr/eng/gong.asp?cat=22&subcat=61
In France the best site is
www.euridile.fr
recently reorganized as a portal (in French only) on a lot of company info.
Some is paid for but you can get a lot of data free.
www.companies.govt.nz
It is mostly free and only in English.
In South Africa company records may be officially obtained via the Registrar of
companies which falls under the Dept of Trade and Industry.
Their website is:
www.cipro.gov.za
Privately, records can be scrutinised electronically
(although not always as updated) via
www.legalcity.co.za
(you will be required to pay a certain amount which would give you access to
South African records, also deeds (property in some cases).
Another suggestion from South Africa would be the local Lexis-Nexis affiliate
www.DeedSearch.co.za
which gives access to local property deeds & mortgages, the
SA company registrar, criminal records, vehicle registration info, drivers' license
databases, credit reference info, birth & death certificates, educational
qualifications, employment records, & a range of other public databases.
www.smida.gov.ua
Available in Ukrainian language only, but an English speaking journalist in
Ukraine named Roman Olearchyk will be glad to help when time is available or
could recommend others who could help do the search
[email protected])
Chamber of Commerce Federation BiH
http://www.kfbih.com/eng/index.htm
Chamber of Commerce BiH (English not available)
http://www.komorabih.ba/webapp/pretraga_kompanija.asp
Chamber of Commerce Republic of Srpska
http://www.komorars.ba/a2/index.php/pg/0.html
ICVA (database for NGO sector in Bosnia)
http://www.icva-bh.org/eng/default.wbsp
High Court of BiH (accused and indicted listed by names and case numbers)
http://www.sudbih.gov.ba/?jezik=e
ON-LAND: Courts for getting data on NGOs etc, other means of getting information
Sending request forms to the subject organization, but the success rate might not be very high
OTHER RESOURCES
Freedom of the Access to Information Act went legally into effect by 2002, but in practice there are many problems getting GOs to cooperate.
The Freedom to Information Advocacy Center in an NGO helping to promote FOIA in Bosnia, and also offering legal assistance.
http://www.foiacenter.org/en/index.html
www.imfo.mfcr.cz/ares/ares_fr.html.cz
Terms: Obchodni jmeno – Company; Obec - Town (community), Ulice - Street, C.
domu - number of the house, IC - Registration number of the company
English: http://www.adatbazis.com/default.asp?lang=en
German: http://www.adatbazis.com/default.asp?lang=de
https://www.shab.ch/shabforms/servlet/forms/SearchView?lg=EN&TYPE=HR
The Swiss Commercial Register offers free company data for the last two years.
Data older than these is paid for.
There is an easier way to cross check quickly and freely our company registries at
www.zefix.admin.ch
This website is updated by the ministry of police and justice in English, French,
German and Italian. You can research by canton or cities, or name of ompanies.
There are the usual indications by company names, holders, shareholders, capital,
etc...If you need more details on companies, you may order a full extract of the
registry, stamped, from the cantons and there is a contact address.
The first place in the States I would go is the US
Securities and Exchange Commission's online database, Edgar at
http://www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml
Publicly traded corporations must file regular, detailed reports that include data on
finances, stock, lawsuits, and more. The 10K reports are particularly useful,
although they can be long and confusing documents.
www.edgaronline.com
It allows you to search for people in SEC documents (much easier than going
through each company filing at SEC's EDGAR database) if you want to track down
a specific individual. EdgarOnline also allows you to choose how you want to view
the SEC filings, i.e. the original filing, word file, pdf, excel (which makes
incorporating the numbers in a database so much easier).
http://www.nass.org
It is the National Association of Secretaries of State, which links to the data for all
50 states. Do a search, and it will ask you which state i.e. New York, California,
etc. You will be directed to the search page for the state you select, and you can
search by entity name, registered agent,
or corporate ID number. It is a free service to use. Some states are easier to use
than others, and some have better info than others, because in the US, each state
has its own laws for corporations concerning registration with the secretary of state
and filling data with the SoS office. Hope this helps. Another hint: Arkansas and
Delaware have some interesting companies, often with many eastern European
connections.
Brazilian Stock Exchange (only in Portuguese)
http://www.somativos.com.br/empresas/empresas.htm
www.biq.dk
This is only in Danish, and it's a paid for database, but it's possible to get one
weeks free membership – without any obligations. You can search for all danish
companies - for all individuals attached to them, and you can get data back in time
(like: Person XX was earlier a member of these company boards...) You can search
for companies or individuals on the same address and so on. To register, go to this
page:
http://www.biq.dk/user/register/
-and when you have written your email, password, first name (fornavn), Last name
(Efternavn) you click on "Bestil prøveabonnement" (Order trial-subscription).
You'll shortly get a mail, and that's that. It's really useful. And you won't have to
cancel your subscription. It just dies after a week.
The Danish Commerce and Company Agency has a limited open database
http://www.publi-com.dk/index2.htm
where you will find basic information such as name (and company aliases),
address, company registration number and the date for last published account. To
gain access to the whole database, you will have to pay the agency a certain fee to
obtain information on e.g. accounts, board members, and host/mother companies.
Chamber of Commerce, Company Register
http://www.mchamber.org.mk/default.asp?tId=12&edit=1&lan=en
ON-LAND: Courts for getting data on NGOs etc, other means of getting information
N/A
OTHER RESOURCES
FOI adopted by the Parliament in January 2006, went into force September 2006.
For more information on the ACT
http://www.freedominfo.org/countries/macedonia.htm
http://recom.onrc.ro/accesare_.htm
Basic information is free of charge.
The Dutch trade register is available online with an English language interface on:
http://www.handelsregister.nl/sectie/sectie.asp?sectieID=102
Most of the information has to be paid for.
The European Business Register
http://www.ebr.org/
You have to pay (varies from country to country), but you'll get access to 14
countries.
Also, don’t forget about the world’s stock exchanges which can provide valuable
data on listed companies. This is a yahoo compiled directory of stock exchanges:
http://dir.yahoo.com/Business_and_Economy/Business_to_Business/Financial_Services/Exchanges/Stock_Exchanges/
