Counterparty asset search in Hong Kong. Service offer

There are no special centralized company search services in Hong Kong. Search for information about a potential counterparty and its assets is done using government databases and registers as well as public sources involving local private detectives. Using these tools, information can be searched for by the following parameters:

• Basic company information search.
• Search for real estate, trademarks, and patents owned by the company.
• Search for information on subsidiaries, if any.
• Search for information on the company’s directors.
• Personal visit to the company’s office (if there is such an office).
• History of the company’s civil and criminal litigations.
• Search for information on the company’s liquidation.
• Analysis of the company’s status as a taxpayer and employer.
• Search for shares held by the company that are listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (5% or more).
• Comprehensive search for information on the company, its directors and shareholders in the information space (in Chinese and English).

The search requires the company’s registration number and name in English or Chinese.

1. The Companies Registry administered by the Hong Kong Registrar of Companies

Company data that can be obtained from the Registry:

• full name of the company in English and/or Chinese;
• information on change of name;
• date of incorporation;
• registration number;
• current and previous registered address;
• company type;
• current status;
• authorized capital;
• directors’ data;
• shareholders’ data;
• secretary’s data;
• information about pledges.

2. Search for a real office based on data by service providers operating in the following fields in Hong Kong:

• telecommunications;
• utility services;
• cable television;
• public information sources;
• state services.

If records are found that evidence that the company has a real office, it is visited.

3. Court case databases

Court case data in Hong Kong is accessed through the official portal accumulating information throughout the whole judicial system of Hong Kong. In the course of a search, records of participation of the company or persons in its structure in legal proceedings in Hong Kong are searched for in two registers:

• Hong Kong civil legal proceedings database covers civil legal proceedings and other records in the High Court, District Court, Small Claims Tribunal, Lands Tribunal, and Labor Tribunal since 1 January 2006.
• Hong Kong criminal legal proceedings database covers criminal legal proceedings and diverse records in the Eastern Magistrates' Courts, Kowloon City Magistrates' Courts, Kwun Tong Magistrates' Courts, West Kowloon Magistrates' Courts, Shatin Magistrates' Courts, Fanling Magistrates' Courts, Tuen Mun Magistrates' Courts since 1 January 2006.

4. Hong Kong Stock Exchange

The exchange's website publishes news and information about companies: listing information, corporate news, and other important information related to activities of public companies, including data of holders of more than 5% of their shares if this information is disclosed in accordance with Hong Kong legislation.

5. Registers of companies that conduct licensed activities

If a company conducts a regulated activity and has obtained a proper license in Hong Kong, information on the legal entity and the license is entered in the public register of licensed persons of the authority that issued the license.

6. Real estate transactions database

The resource covers most records of real estate transactions since 1 July 1992, including flats, parking spaces, stores and commercial/industrial facilities in city districts (Kowloon and Hong Kong), in new territories and islands with no limitations regarding the value of real estate. Exemptions are some apartment buildings or country houses and plots of land, and real estate that is public rental housing or included in a program of subsidized sale of public housing.

7. Report of the Official Receiver's Office

It is a government agency that provides control over bankruptcy and voluntary liquidation procedures and appointment of receivers in Hong Kong. During the search, a request is made to check the availability of the following information:

• Data on the company’s being in the process of bankruptcy or liquidation as well as on the beginning and the course of the bankruptcy and liquidation procedures and their participants.
• Information on tangible assets, accounts payable, and other financial information related to bankruptcy or liquidation.

8. Other public sources

As part of a comprehensive search for and analysis of information on a company, its directors and shareholders in the information space, we check the company and its related parties for publications on the Internet, in international and local mass media, specialized publications by industry as well as records in counterparty check systems used by compliance services. Information about subsidiaries of the company can be found using backward search.

9. Sources in other jurisdictions

If information is found proving that the company has subsidiaries in jurisdictions outside Hong Kong, we will also check information about them in public sources of those jurisdictions. In a lot of countries, we can also help search for assets of a subsidiary (charged separately).