ACRA Company Search: Checking a Singapore Company
What the Singapore register shows about a company, how to read it, and where the search stops.
If you are doing due diligence on a Singapore company, the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) register is the natural first stop. It is the official record of who the company is, who runs it and what it has filed. This article walks through an ACRA company search in the order a careful reviewer would read it, and is clear about what the search cannot answer.
Start with the UEN and the name
Every Singapore entity has a Unique Entity Number (UEN). Search by UEN where you can, because names are easily confused: similar names, former names and group companies with a shared stem are common. Check that the name, UEN and entity type on the register match the contract, the letterhead and the bank account name. A mismatch is not proof of anything, but it is a question to put to the company.
What the business profile shows
Searches are made through ACRA’s BizFile+ service, and a business profile can be purchased for a small fee. The profile typically sets out:
- Status. Live, struck off, in liquidation or otherwise. A company that is not live cannot be treated as a trading counterparty without more work.
- Incorporation date and entity type. Private company limited by shares, exempt private company, limited liability partnership and so on.
- Registered address. Compare it with the address in the pitch. Many companies use a corporate secretary’s address, which is normal but means the address tells you little about operations.
- Officers. Directors, the company secretary and any appointment or cessation dates. Frequent changes in a short period are worth asking about.
- Shareholders and share capital. Issued and paid-up capital, and the registered shareholders at the date of the profile.
- Principal activities. The activity codes the company has registered. Compare them with what the company says it does.
Filings and financial statements
Do not assume accounts are on file. Many private companies in Singapore are not required to lodge financial statements with ACRA, so the register may show an annual return but no accounts. Where a company tells you its accounts are “filed”, ask which filing, for which year, and ask for a copy. What is on the register and what the company sends you should match.
Charges and beneficial ownership
Charges registered against the company show security the company has given to lenders. Compare the list with the debts the company has disclosed to you. Companies in Singapore are also required to keep their own registers of controllers, and those registers are not open to the public in the way some other jurisdictions’ are. Ask the company for its register of registrable controllers and compare it with the shareholder list.
Reading the search sensibly
- Record the date and time of the search. The register changes, and your report should say when it was read.
- Cross-check with the company’s own papers. Constitution, board resolutions, share certificates and the latest annual return should agree with the register.
- Look at the people, not only the company. Search the named directors for other appointments, and ask about companies that have ceased.
- Treat gaps as questions. A missing filing or an unexplained change is something to raise with the company, not a conclusion.
What an ACRA search does not show
- Court cases. Litigation is held by the courts, not the registry. See our note on litigation and court records.
- Bank and tax position. Revenue, cash and tax compliance are not on the register. Kubr compares these with the company’s own figures only with the company’s consent.
- Whether the numbers are right. The register records what was filed, not whether it is accurate.
The ACRA register is one layer of a records-based check. Our Singapore page explains how it fits with other records, and the work we do is described under services.
A worked example, described generally
Suppose a counterparty gives you a name, a UEN and a pitch deck that says the company has traded for six years. You run the search and find the UEN matches, the status is live, but the incorporation date is fourteen months ago. That does not mean the deck is wrong: the business may have been carried on earlier by a predecessor, a sole proprietorship or a related company that was later folded in. It does mean there is a specific question to ask, and a specific document to request, such as the sale or transfer agreement that moved the business across. The point of the register is to turn a vague impression into a precise question.
A second pattern: the profile lists two directors, but the signatory on the loan agreement is a third person. Check the appointment dates. The signatory may have been appointed after the profile date, may be an authorised officer rather than a director, or may not be authorised at all. Ask for the board resolution that authorised the signing, and check the date of your search against the date of the document.
Reading officers and shareholders properly
Officer entries are more useful when read as a timeline than as a snapshot. Note when each person was appointed and whether anyone has ceased. A founder who ceased as a director but still appears as a shareholder may have stepped back from management but not from ownership; the reverse can also happen. Where a director lives abroad, check that the company has the locally resident director that Singapore requires, and that the person named is the one you have been dealing with.
For shareholders, look at whether the holder is an individual or a company. A corporate shareholder is a pointer to the next search: repeat the process on that entity, and keep going until you reach individuals or an entity you cannot look through. Note where the chain stops, because a chain that ends in a jurisdiction with a closed register is a limit of the records, and your report should say so rather than imply the ownership is fully traced.
Charges in practice
A registered charge record typically shows the chargee (the lender or security holder), the dates of creation and registration, the type of charge and a description of the secured assets or amount. It tells you that security exists. It does not tell you the current balance, whether the debt has been repaid, or whether a repayment was followed by a filing to record the discharge. Where a charge looks old, ask the company whether it was satisfied and request the lender’s confirmation. Where the company’s debt schedule lists a facility with no matching charge, that can be innocent (many facilities are unsecured), but it is worth asking what, if anything, secures it.
Keeping the evidence usable
Save the profile as you receive it, with the search date, the UEN and the person who ran it. If you later rely on a search in a credit paper or an investment memo, a reader should be able to see exactly what the register said and when. A screenshot without a date is much weaker than a saved profile with a retrieval log. If the register is read again a few weeks later, compare the two copies: changes between them show what moved while you were deciding. For the way such findings are laid out, see the illustrative sample report outline.
Sources
Primary registries and regulators referred to in this article:
- Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA), Singapore
- BizFile+, Singapore business registry
- eLitigation, Singapore courts
- Singapore Judiciary
Kubr accesses bank and tax records only with the company’s consent.
This article is general information, not legal, financial or investment advice.