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About Us > Resources > Recommended CI Web-sites > Financial Filings, etc.

AWARE Competitive Intelligence Resources
Recommended Web Sites for CI Research

Financial information sources
(Company filings / public & private company data / global stock exchanges)

Sites checked: 23 October 2006

Topic Index
UK, general & pan-European sources
European sources (by country)
North America, Australasia, South Africa
Rest of World Sources
Global Stock Exchanges

UK, general & pan-European sources

The following sites provide company information on the UK, and multiple European/global companies. Some are subscription based, wheras some are completely free or pay-as-you-go. The sites are grouped with the UK company registry office first, followed by general European company information sites, global information sites, discussion forums and rumour sites, and then commercial credit information suppliers with a UK database.

  • Companies House - The source for any public or private limited company accounts in the UK (England, Scotland and Wales. N Ireland is separate - see below). The Web-check feature allows for a free summary, but full accounts are charged. The amount of information available depends on the size of the company - with minimal account information generally available for small companies (under £5.6m / around $10m). For these companies, often only an abbreviated balance sheet is available.
  • Northern Ireland Company Registrar - company filings can be obtained by clicking the Comapnies Registry link. The site also includes other information - statistics, economic data, etc.

  • The Institute of Chartered Accountants of England & Wales (ICAEW) - Knowledge Guide to International Company Registrations - Company Filings & Registries worldwide including summarised filing requirements by country. This site is useful for finding out what information is likely to be available for each country and also includes links to the company registration sites. The whole ICAEW web-site Library & Information Service is a treasure-trove of useful information.

  • The European Business Registry - a list of company registrars thoughout Europe - many of which allow direct access to company information and filings
  • Companies House list of global company registry offices
  • Researcha - a database of all UK companies and directors plus 32 million companies in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland. Researcha is linked to FreePint, a fantastic portal site and discussion forum for information professionals world-wide.
  • Skyminder - a subscription service giving access to global company daa from a variety of sources
  • Carol (Companies Annual Reports Online) - a collection of public company annual reports
  • Hemscott - Public company information aimed at investors, including stock quotes, market information, etc.
  • Hugin Online - European public company data and news
  • CorporateInformation - a source for global corporate information on leading companies in over 55 countries, now managed by Wright Investor Services - and requiring subscription in order to access the data
  • Hoovers - mainly public company information world-wide with very good free summary information
  • Google Finance - uses Hoovers information, but adds to this with blog and discussion forum items
  • Yahoo Finance - as with Google Finance, includes Hoovers information and additional information from Yahoo, etc.
  • ADVFN - stock quotes, graphics, financial analysis (graphical), news.... a fantastic one-stop shop for all kinds of public company related information.
  • Stockopedia - is a financial media and data site focused on listed stocks, particularly in the UK - it provides news, charts, data, research and comment.

  • Motley Fool - investor discussion forums that may contain rumours and comments. There is also a UK version looking at UK based companies.
  • Interactive Investor - UK investor site with discussion forums, etc.
  • Quote.com - offering share charts and stockmarket quotes globally

  • Dun & Bradstreet - the leading commerical company information supplier from across the world
  • Experian - another global company information supplier - also supplying consumer data
  • Equifax - a further global company information supplier - also supplying consumer data
  • RM Online - an excellent and cost-effective UK company information supplier
  • ICC - another UK company information supplier - also providing analysed company data
  • Bureau van Dijk - produce a range of products looking at both global and national corporate information. Products include FAME - Financial Analysis Made Easy (a database of UK company finances, including analysis software); AMADEUS (a comprehensive, pan-European database containing financial information on approaching 9 million public and private companies in 38 European countries) and many more. National databases cover most of Europe and also Russia, Japan and the Ukraine.

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European Company Information

This lists key company information sources by European country. Not all countries in Europe are listed, and some of the general sources above hold similar information. However we believe that these are some of the most useful sites.

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North America, Australasia, South Africa Company Information

Financial Data availability in the English speaking world varies enormously - with the UK and Ireland (listed above) having considerable amounts of information available on both private and public companies. This is unlike the USA, for example, which only has limited private company data.

To obtain detailed information on private company financials in the USA, Australia, and in fact most companies globally, is very difficult - and can only effectively be achieved via primary research, although there are some (mainly) pay-to-use databases that include private company information - for example Dun & Bradstreet will report on private companies as well as publicly quoted organizations, and Hoovers includes private companies in their database.

  • Canada - SEDAR - the System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval is the official site that provides access to most public securities documents and information filed by public companies and investment funds with the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA)
  • Canada - Strategis - includes a centrally maintained current searchable database of 50,000 Canadian businesses which include profiles on each, as well as the federal corporations database which lists incorporated organizations.
  • USA - the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) - public company information can be found on the SEC web-site through the EDGAR database which includes annual reports, director transactions and much more.
  • USA - Corporate Registrations by state - Individual US state governments will register corporations - although the requirements vary according to US state law. This UK Companies House web-site lists the registries for most US states.
  • USA - 10KWizard - one of several (and one of the best) sources for US company financials, 10K Wizard simplifies the process of accessing the SEC Edgar database, and allows downloads of financial data from public companies in accessible formats
  • USA - Forbes Largest Private US companies (2005) - a list of the largest private companies in the USA (updated each year) . This is one of several Forbes business lists - which include fast growing technology companies, and company rankings
  • Australia - the Australian Business Register (ABR) - The ABR is managed by the Australian Taxation Office and records the information provided by businesses when they register for a business number. Unfortunately the information held is quite limited - and does not even include full contact details.
  • Australia - the Australian Securities & Investment Commission (Search Pages) - similar information to the Australian Business Register (although in an easier to use format) and with links to brokers supplying further data.
  • New Zealand - New Zealand Companies Office - with considerable information (much of it free) on New Zealand companies
  • South Africa - Companies and Intellectual Property Registration Office of South Africa - contains extensive data on companies, patents and trademarks registered in South Africa

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Rest of the World

Information on other countries is variable - in some cases almost non-existent or untrustworthy, whereas in other areas it can be very high quality. Often, however, the only real source will be proprietary data suppliers and information is often expensive.

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Global Stock Exchanges

This is a list of global exchanges. Some are larger and more important - but most will give links to company information sources, even if they do not hold this information themselves. Minimally, they will generally list quoted companies and some details - such as market capitalisation, share price, etc. for companies on the exchange. Also included are some commodity and futures exchanges which can also hold important market information.

We try and keep all links up-to-date. However sites frequently change or disappear.
Please let us know if you find any dead links, or if you want us to add your site onto this page.

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AWARE News

Publications / Presentations

Arthur Weiss gave a conference paper on specialist search - finding names, numbers and news at the Online Information 2011 Conference as well as an exhibition seminar giving top tips for finding competitive intelligence online for use in primary reserarch. These can be downloaded on our publications pages. Arthur also led two sessions as part of WebSearch Academy at the Internet Librarian International Conference in October 2011 (Planning your Research & Social Media). (See our presentation & papers pages to download these).

2012 events so far confirmed include the Institute of Competitive Intelligence conference in Bad Nauheim, Germany (March 2012) - a workshop on online competitive intelligence, and a practitioner case study looking at how national cultures can influence primary research efficacy.

Several other workshops are planned - in both Europe and Asia. If you are interested in competitive intelligence training and workshops contact us, or visit our training pages. We offer custom training looking at all aspects of marketing & competitive intelligence including evaluating competitor strategies, online research, marketing research, competitor analysis, scenario planning and much more.

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Books - Competitors (Fahey)

Recommended Book

Competitors (Fahey)
Competitors: Outwitting, Outmanoeuvring, and Outperforming
Liam Fahey
Buy UK £ or US$

Read our review of this book

Competitors shows you how to determine what you need to know about competitors, analyse competitor strategy, predict likely next moves and link this into your own operations, avoiding many errors associated with traditional approaches.
Liam Fahey is one of the leading new thinkers on Competitive Strategy and this book introduces Fahey's concept of "competitor learning", giving guidelines for identifying and analysing key competitor data to help gain strategic insights. An important book - that should sit on any CI analyst's bookshelf.

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For more recommendations visit our book selection.

 

Quick Tip: Questions

Quick Tip: Ask the right question

Rather than look for information to answer a question, think about how you will use the answer.

If you won't be able to incorporate actions based on the answer you find into your business strategy then maybe the question you asked needs changing to something that will lead to meaningful actions.

 

Competitive Intelligence Training

Do you need to
know more about
Competitive Intelligence?

We offer in-house Competitive Intelligence Training, customised to your requirements.
Find out about our training services today!

Finding Competitive Intelligence using Online Sources

AWARE consultants are experts at discovering competitor information online and have developed a market-leading course on Finding Competitive Intelligence using Online Sources. This course has been given as an in-house course to numerous companies across industries (IT, publishing, telecoms, chemicals....) and countries, as well as publicly at SCIP annual and European conferences, the London International Online Information Conferences and other similar events.

The workshop has received high praise for its unique approach to finding competitive intelligence on the Internet. The workshop - available as a half-day summary, full day or 2-day in-depth training course with extensive practical online sessions - teaches attendees how to find actionable competitive intelligence rather than just present a list of sources that quickly date. Like all AWARE's in-house training, the course can be customised to focus on industry or competitive area.

For more information on this workshop and how it can help you become a more effective Internet researcher check out our Competitive Intelligence Training and ask us about our courses on finding CI information.

 

Institute of Competitive Intelligence
UK Course Schedule

ICI holds regular public training courses & workshops on a range of competitive intelligence related topics. Courses take place across Europe, the USA and elsewhere. The next UK based ICI courses will take place in November 2010 and February 2011 in central London.

Course Schedule
If you register 40 days in advance, deduct 5% from total fees.

Further information on the Institute of Competitive Intelligence.

 

Competitive Intelligence on a budget

Many businesses think that competitive intelligence research is expensive and hard to do. This is not true. It is quite possible to uncover crucial competitive intelligence without spending large sums.

Visiting industry trade-shows and conferences is a fantastic way to find out what is happening. However there is much more to trade show intelligence than just picking up the competitors' marketing materials. You can discuss what is happening in the industry with sales people on competitor stands and hear opinion leaders at floor-show seminars.

At a trade-show, competitor sales people are generally willing to talk to anybody - including their competitors. They will want to boast about what they are doing and how. What they refuse to say can be as informative as what they do say - and so trade shows present a golden opportunity for gathering intelligence on the whole marketplace in one go - making for fast and efficient intelligence gathering. If you feel uncomfortable doing this yourself or want to know how to do it better, ask us.

For more information on Trade Show Intelligence, and how to do competitive intelligence on a budget, contact us today on +44 20 8954 9121 or .

 

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Our services in competitive intelligence research, competitor analysis and CI training will help you integrate and use competitive and marketing intelligence in your business, strategic and marketing planning processes. Whether you need research, advice or training, our mission is to support our clients so that they achieve their growth objectives.

For the best UK & European competitive intelligence and competitor analysis services, contact us today.

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Last page / site update: Thursday, May 5, 2011

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