Searching our registers

There are several ways you can search the Companies Register to find the information about companies incorporated in:

• New Zealand, including their addresses, directors and shareholders
• other countries, but which are registered on the Overseas Register to do business in New Zealand.

Most people searching the PPSR aim to:

• find information before entering into a security agreement
• check that there's no money owing on an item of personal property, for example a car, before they buy it.

You can search the PPSR directly on our website or by using mobile phone applications offered by other providers. To search the PPSR website, you must be a registered user and pay for $2 (plus GST) for each search.

The Disclose Register provides an online tool for issuers and managers to register and manage information about their offers and schemes, and fulfil many of their compliance obligations. You can search for:

• offers and schemes
• all the participants involved in a scheme.

The FSPR is a searchable online register of people, businesses and organisations that offer financial services, such as banks and investment companies.

Search the public register of licensed auditors and registered audit firms of New Zealand issuers.

Auditors

Searching for overseas auditors

Search the public register of approved overseas auditors and associations of accountants.

Approved overseas auditors and associations of accountants

You can search the other registers we administer, including:

• Building societies
• Credit unions
• Friendly societies
• Industrial & provident societies
• Overseas issuers
• Participatory securities
• Retirement villages
• Superannuation schemes
• Unit trusts

How to search these registers

Go to the 'Other registers search' page and choose:

• Other registers search — if you know the type of organisation you're looking for — for example, a retirement village, or
• Previous name search — if you're looking for organisations that have changed their name since 1 July 2006.

Follow these steps.

1. From the list of registers, select one or more depending on what you want to search for.
2. Select 'Continue' to move to the search screen.
3. Refine your search by using:
   • the unique reference number that each organisation registered with the Companies Office has — usually a 6 or 7 digit number
   • the name of the organisation, or
   • up to 2 relevant keywords — choose less common words in an organisation's name to narrow down your results.
4. Select 'Submit' to display the results.

Searching for organisations

You can find more details about an organisation by selecting a search result. For most organisations on these registers you can find details such as:

• their address
• date of incorporation
• any change to their name
• documents they have filed with the Companies Office — many of these can be downloaded.

The amount and type of information stored on our database depends on the Act that the organisation is registered under and what information is stored electronically.

Previous name searches

If you don't know the current name of an entity, you can use this search to find the entity's former name.

Search results show the former name alongside the entity's current registered name. To display the current information for the entity, select the link for the historic name or the current name.