You have the company name. Where is the official register?
Official starting points for company research in Singapore, France, Spain and the UAE, with search identifiers and a guide to choosing the right document.
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A contract arrives with a foreign company’s name on the first page. Before ordering a report, it helps to establish two things: which authority holds the record, and what you need from it. Finding an address, obtaining a registration document and checking a representative’s authority are different research tasks.
Ask for the full registered name, the registration or licence number, and the authority or jurisdiction of registration. Keep the name in its original language. These details give you a more useful starting point than a trading name alone.
Four places to start
| Jurisdiction | Official starting point | What to search with | What you can obtain |
|---|---|---|---|
| Singapore | ACRA Bizfile | Entity name or UEN | Free basic information; separate paid information products. |
| France | Annuaire des Entreprises and DATA INPI | Registered name, SIREN or SIRET | Public business information and a free RNE registration attestation. Kbis follows a different route. |
| Spain | Registradores: Registro Mercantil | Registered name or NIF | A paid nota informativa mercantil, with information sections selected for the task. |
| UAE | Government directory of licence enquiries | Identify the licensing authority, then use the identifiers its service requests | Licence enquiries and authority-specific records; access and charges depend on the service. |
Singapore: start with the free lookup. ACRA says Bizfile’s free search needs no login and can show status and registered address. A Business Profile is a separate purchase. Use the search guide to choose a name or UEN search, and the product descriptions to decide whether a paid document is needed. Do not assume that every field in a paid product appears in the free result.
France: name the document you need. INPI’s RNE registration attestation is available free to everyone; a Kbis is issued by the commercial court registry for an RCS-registered company. INPI explains both documents. If someone has specifically requested a Kbis, clarify that requirement before substituting another document. The Annuaire’s Kbis guidance distinguishes the paid third-party request route from the route available to a company’s own manager. Free access to one document does not establish the access conditions for every other filing.
Spain: choose company information or an announcement. Registradores allows occasional-user requests for the paid nota informativa mercantil, without subscribing to the service. Check the selected sections and applicable charges before ordering. For announcement research, the BOE’s BORME search guidance describes a different collection: the “Anuncios” database covers BORME Section II, “Anuncios y avisos legales”, from 2001. Record which collection you searched; an announcement search and a company-information request answer different questions.
UAE: use the issuing authority as your guide. The government directory links to national and emirate-level services. For free-zone entities, consult the relevant authority too: the ADGM public-register page and DMCC entity register are concrete starting points. Treat these as separate scopes, not as evidence that one search covers every UAE entity. Also distinguish a trade-name availability check from a search for an existing licence: Sharjah’s availability service concerns a name proposed for reservation. This guide does not establish a uniform login or charging rule across UAE services.
Keep a short search record
- Full name and identifier supplied by the counterparty.
- Authority, service URL and collection searched.
- Search terms and date of the enquiry.
- Identifier in the returned record; differences requiring follow-up.
- Document obtained, or the particular document still needed.
If there is no match, preserve that narrower finding: no result in this service with these search terms. Then check the name, identifier and authority before broadening the conclusion.
Official entry points and service guidance checked on 22 September 2026. This guide is based on that guidance; no company-specific search or document purchase was completed for this article.