Foreign Company Research

Before You Begin

There are several points to remember when researching foreign companies. The first is that American sources will not necessarily contain as complete information on foreign companies as material produced locally in individual countries. Second, information on non-American companies may be limited for several reasons: the information expectations regarding company information in other countries may not be the same as they are in the US; it may be harder to gather the information, or publications may not be printed with the same frequency as they are in the US.

If a foreign company trades on any of the US exchanges, it will have to file an annual report (20F) with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Also, it may have divisions in the US that are companies in their own right so they will be required to file the same filings as other US public companies. Sometimes these will be on the SEC page and sometimes they won't since 20Fs were not required to be filed electronically.

For more information on researching foreign companies, you may consult the following source:

How to Find Information About Foreign and Global Companies. Washington, DC: Washington Researchers, c1996-.
LC Call Number: HD2771.H69
LC Control Number: 96648284

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Doing Company Research

Table of Contents

Scope
Directories
Rankings/Lists
Private Company Research
Public Company Research
Foreign Company Research

There are many, many print directories published on individual countries by many different publishers, including several publishers that publish multiple products. Searching a local collection by subject may be the easiest way the access them locally. Here are a few LC subject headings that may be used to locate directories in the collections of the Library of Congress:

Industries - Country name - Directories
      for example: Industries - Canada - Directories

Country name - Commerce - Directories
      for example: Argentina - Commerce - Directories

Export - Country name - Directories
      for example: Export - Japan - Directories

Import - Country name - Directories
      for example: Import - France- Directories

Kompass.

Their main web page has some free information but the bulk is accessible only with a subscription. Here is information and a list of their directories by country.

Thompson/Gale (old Graham & Whiteside).

Various geographies:

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Dun & Bradstreet.

This is a list of what the Library of Congress has in it's collection. Some of the names may have changed. D&B reports are available on foreign companies. However, while the reports for US companies run around $100, foreign reports can be double or triple the cost and still not have the depth of information that is in a report for a US company.

Who Owns Whom. High Wycombe Bucks, [England] : Dun & Bradstreet Ltd.

(various Call Numbers for various geographies: Continental Europe, UK/Ireland, and North/South America, Australasia, Asia, Middle East & Africa)

Directory of Foreign Firms Operating in the US. New York, N.Y. : Simon & Schuster, Technical and Reference Book Division, 1969-.
LC Call Number: HG4057.A21943
LC Control Number: 86657540

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Directory of Foreign Investment in the US. Real Estate and Business. Detroit, MI : Gale Research Inc., c1991-c1993.
LC Call Number: HG4057.A21944
LC Control Number: 91656076

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Directory of American Firms Operating in Foreign Countries. New York, Uniworld Business Publications, [etc.], 1955/56-.
LC Call Number: HG4538.A1
LC Control Number: 55039067

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Moody's (Mergent) International Manual. Moody's Investors Service. New York : The Service, c1981-.
LC Call Number: HG4009 .M66
LC Control Number: 82641212

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Ward's Business Directory of Private and Public Companies in Canada and Mexico. Detroit, MI : Gale, c2003-.
LC Call Number: HF5074.W37
LC Control Number: 2002214749

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F&S Index Europe Annual. Foster City, Calif., U.S.A. : The Company, c1994-.
LC Call Number: Z7165.E8 P73
LC Control Number: 94657030

Information Access Company. Also known as Funk and Scott and Predicasts. Goes back to the 1960's.

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F&S Index International Annual. Foster City, Calif., U.S.A. : The Company, c1994-.
LC Call Number: Z7164.C81 F13
LC Control Number: 94657010

Information Access Company. Also known as Funk and Scott and Predicasts. Goes back to the 1960's.

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Portals.

Country portals like Yahoo! have finance areas like the Yahoo! US finance area. For example the Yahoo! for the UK/Ireland, Canada, and Australia/New Zealand all have finance sections that allow for company research. Generally, these sites are limited to information on public companies. Not all Yahoo! portals have a finance section but other country-specific portals may have similar types of information will likely vary from country to country and portal to portal.

PUBLIC FILINGS

Requirements for filings in countries other than the US are quite different from what companies filing in the US are required to file. Getting the filings for other countries may not as easy as getting public companies in the US. The Canadian Securities Administration make their public filings more accessible to the point of having them in English and French while the UK sources like Corporate Reports or Companies House are subscription based services. Then there is even a service called CAROL which has UK, Asia, and US companies. Access is free of charge, but does required registration for access to annual reports. Check the government authority web page first and then look for any private vendors.

If you are looking for foreign corporations that happen to trade (and file) in the US the SEC filing 20-F is good bet for information.

International Organization of Securities Commissioners.

They have listing of members Ordinary, Associate, and Affiliate (country, province, regional, etc. securities agencies) with contact information and web links under each list. This is not a complete list. Yahoo! - under government and then for each country the Administration, Agencies, Ministries, Department, etc. link would be the place to start to find a specific country's regulatory agency or agencies. There are other source for regulators links NASD and BourseWorld.com.