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Company Searches International provides Business Reports as up to date as possible on all registered businesses in Germany. Financial Reports can also be provided where available.
Full Company Name and Address or at least the town the company is registered in are needed for a search, as all businesses register locally rather than centrally. There are nearly 100 local registries.
Financial Information
a) From an in-house library which we can check at the time of order. We have a number of quoted company annual reports in house which may be in English.
b) We can apply to a correspondent in Germany for a copy of the full accounts as placed at the registry. These will be available in German but we are able to provide a translation sheet of major accounting terminology.
We can extract financial extracts for anything up to the last three years from a German database. These will include the full profit & loss and balance sheets and will be provided in
ENGLISH. Although all registered companies are now obliged to file in Germany legislation concerning limited liability companies only came into force in 1988. An equivalent to £1.00 is the fine for not filing, therefore only about 15% of limited liability companies have filed, these are mainly GmbH companies although the company style of AG can also be used by limited liability companies.
This information can be provide on the same/following day of your order.
Business Reports
These are general company profiles based on the most up to date information available at local official registries and other sources. They are always available in English, on a three speed service.
Contents of a Business Report
Identity, Legal Status & History
- Legal Status
- Date & Place of Incorporation
- Registration Date & Number.
Ownership & Management
- Issued Share Capital
- Shareholders (main shareholders only if bulk list)
- Director/Management
- Ultimate Holding Company
Activities & Operations
- Activities of Company
- Trade Name
- Address & Telephone Number
- Registered Office
- (if different from the address given)
- Number of Staff
- Additional Premises Owned
- Subsidiaries
- Mode of Payments
Financial & Public Record Information
- Sales/Turnover for last 2-3 years
- Extracts from Assets and Liabilities
A Summary & Credit Opinion
- Upper Credit Limited (in Deutsch Marks)
- Opinion on Trend of Affairs.
- Risk Rating (scored out of 100-600, the lower the score, the less risk to the company).
Principal Business Types
Aktiengesellschaft (AG)
Minimal capital requirement is DM 100,000 - Obliged to file. Roughly equivalent to PLC
Gesellschaft mit beschrankter Haftung (GmbH)
Minimal capital requirement DM 50,000 - half must be paid up. Private limited liability company.
GmbH & Co. KG.
A limited partnership where the general partner is a GmbH, which is liable up to its subscribed capital. Usually the limited partners are at the same time shareholders of the general partners. This is a very popular business form in Germany.
Offene Handelsgesellschaft (OHG)
General partnership. All partners are jointly and severally liable for the firm's debts.
Kommanditgesellschaft (KG)
Limited partnership with at least one partner whose liability is unlimited
(Komplementar) and one or more partners whose liability is limited to the amount they have invested in the business.
Kommanditgesellschaft auf Aktien (KGaA)
Associations limited by shares
Einzelunternehmen
Sole Proprietorship. An individual operating under a certain firm name. He has
unlimited liability to his firm's creditors.
Accounts Filing Requirements
No central registry
AG companies lodge accounts
All businesses register with local Chamber of Commerce & Industry. Only 15% of GmbH companies have lodged accounts to date despite new legislation introduced in 1988 (EEC directive) requiring all GmbHs to do so.
AGs and GmbHs are obliged to file:
- Balance Sheet
- Profit & Loss Account
- Notes (Anhang) - containing explanatory notes on specific items of the accounts
- Report on the economic position
- Report of the supervisory board on the financial statement
Filing Exemptions
Partnerships not obliged to lodge accounts unless they meet at least two of the three following criteria:
- balance sheet total in excess of DM 125m
- turnover proceeds exceeding DM 250m
- average number of employees exceeding 5000
Small limited companies (AG & GmbH). A small company is one that meets two of the following criteria:
- balance sheet total not exceeding DM 3.9 million
- turnover not exceeding DM 8 million
- average number of employees not exceeding 50.
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