Company particulars: Hong Kong

A company particulars search returns the Companies Registry's current record of a Hong Kong company, as shown by the Company Particulars Search on the Registry's e-Services Portal. The report gives the company's name in English and Chinese, its business registration number, type, date of incorporation and status, any winding-up mode or date of dissolution, whether a register of charges exists, and the name history. It then lists the registered office with its effective date, the issued and paid-up share capital, the shareholders with the class and number of shares each holds, the directors and reserve directors, the company secretary, and any receiver, manager or liquidator. The shareholder table is taken from the incorporation form, the annual returns and the returns of allotment filed with the Registry, so it shows the position at the last filing.

Banks, insurers, law firms, company secretaries and procurement teams order it to confirm that a counterparty exists, is live and is run by the people it says, and to see which documents have been filed. Fill Easy's report ends with the list of every document the Registry holds for the company, grouped by category, so the next order can name the annual return, charge or change of director it needs.

This search is automated. Email the company name, in English or Chinese, or its number to the agent and the report comes back as a PDF in the same thread in about 15 minutes. The same search runs through the API with a company ID. Fill Easy holds the Registry account and pays the search fee, so no portal login is needed.