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AWARE: UK competitive intelligence consultants offering competitor analysis and research services, competitive intelligence training & workshops and CI and marketing strategy consultancy.
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.
  • Euroinfopool - a database containing European company filings. (Subscription required)
  • 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
  • Report Gallery (Annual Reports.com) - a collection of public company annual reports only that can be downloaded or viewed as Acrobat PDFs

  • 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.

  • 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
  • F**kedcompany - a discussion / rumour site on companies with problems or in trouble. Also links to related sites - for example the subscription based InternalMemos which include leaked company memos, etc.

  • 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

AWARE News

SCIP European Conference 2008 / International Online Conference & Exhibition

Arthur Weiss, AWARE's managing partner led his acclaimed full-day workshop on Using Online Sources for Competitive Intelligence Research at the SCIP Annual Conference in San Diego, California in April 2008.

The SCIP workshop, a fully revised and updated version, included practical exercises, a review of new developments such as Web 2.0 sites and much more. Previous AWARE workshops and masterclasses on the same topic have received high praise for their unique approach to finding competitive intelligence on the Internet and have been given at workshops and conferences across the globe! The workshop aim is to teach attendees how to find CI rather than just present a list of sources that quickly date.

For more information on the workshop and how it can help you become a more effective Internet researcher ask us about our courses on finding CI information.

WS Radio Interview

Arthur Weiss was interviewed by Paul Helm, the president of Strategic Research Network, as part of the InfoPro show on WS Radio - The worldwide leader in Internet talk.

Listen to the whole interview or in separate parts (around 10-15 minutes each)

 

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

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.

 

Public training

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!

Public Training Workshops
Institute of Competitive Intelligence

 

Events

Institute of Competitive Intelligence
UK Course Schedule

16-17 June 2008: ICI-1 - Competitive Intelligence Basics - an introduction to CI: what it is, how to do it and what not to do! (Cost: £790 / €1090 per attendee)
18-19 June 2008: ICI-4 - Secondary Research for CI including searching the Internet for CI. (Cost: £790 / €1090 per attendee)
23-24 June 2008: ICI-5 - Primary Research for CI covering how to interview primary sources for CI. (Cost: £830 / €1150 per attendee).

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

Book your place!

Further information on the Institute of Competitive Intelligence.

 

saw-us-at

Finding Competitive Intelligence using Online Sources

A shortened version of AWARE's market-leading course on Finding Competitive Intelligence using Online Sources was given to attendees at the Online Information 2007 conference as a masterclass. The full workshop was given as part of the SCIP Europe conference in Bad Nauheim, Germany, and as a pre-conference workshop at the annual SCIP conference in San Diego, California, in April 2008.

This workshop has received high praise for its unique approach to finding competitive intelligence on the Internet, and has been given at workshops and conferences across the globe! The workshop - available as a half-day or full day in-house training course - teaches attendees how to find actionable competitive intelligence rather than just present a list of sources that quickly date.

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.

 

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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.

AWARE Phone numbers: 0845 430 9125 (International: +44 20 8954 9121). Fax: 0845 430 9126 (International: +44 20 8954 2102)

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Pages updated: May 2008

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