Anyone who has invested or done research in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) will know the challenge of finding reliable sources of company information. To help you get started, we have put together this five-step guide of helpful tips and what to look out for.
1. Which jurisdiction?
It may sound obvious, but it is crucial to know where the company you are looking for is registered. In many cases knowing the country is sufficient, particularly where there is a centralised company registry, but in the MEA region we often find multiple jurisdictions within a single country; examples include the federal and Kurdistan regions within Iraq, or free trade zones which exist within several countries in the region, notably in the UAE. In some countries, such as Saudi Arabia and Algeria, companies have historically registered in their local city or province and the registry system has been centralised more recently, meaning that the most detailed and upto-date information is only held at a local level.
2. Legal form
Another useful signpost towards the information you are looking for is the legal form of the entity. These are specific to the company formation laws of each jurisdiction and cover a range of entities, from publicly listed companies to limited liability companies to sole proprietorships. The legal form will dictate how each entity is established and structured, as well as its reporting obligations to the relevant authorities, which in turn – crucially for us – often determine how much information is available in the public domain.
3. Is the registry online?
A positive trend of recent years is that more countries in the MEA region have made it easier to access company registry information online. Whilst some of these registry websites are free to air, such as Bahrain’s Sijilat service, other countries restrict access to those with a national ID and who can pay fees from a local bank account.
In countries such as Angola and Iran, large amounts of company information have been available for years in the form of online gazettes that publish announcements of company formations and subsequent amendments as they occur, which make it challenging to search and collate all the relevant information. In many other jurisdictions, company information remains offline, often only in paper form, and it will clearly be some time before an online company registry (let alone an API) is available.
4. Language barriers
Bear in mind that many MEA company registries, if they are online, only provide information in the local language of record: Arabic, French, Turkish, Farsi, Portuguese or English. Local language skills are therefore a distinct advantage – either to search by name, or particularly if you want to contact the in-country registry or a local lawyer directly.
5. Other external sources
There are other resources out there that can help you navigate the company
information landscape of the MEA region. These include:
It can take time and a degree of persistence to find accurate and reliable company information in a way that is comprehensive and easy to read. This is what Diligencia does in order to provide clarity around the key relationships which underpin business in the MEA region. Having a clear view of a company’s structure, management and ownership is a fundamental building block of sound decision making, which in turn creates the foundation for growth and prosperity.