Company Information

Databases

• Business Source Premier.
  • International database containing full text journal articles. Don't forget that you can use the company / organisation name as a search term!
  • Also covers company profiles, market reports, industry reports and trade press.
• Companies House.
  All companies in the UK must register with Companies House. The site includes:
  • Free basic UK company information is available in the 'search company information' icon.
  • A list of company registry organisations throughout the world via their links site.
  • Full text guides to topics such as company formation and directors' responsibilities under the 'Guidance Booklet' link.
• Datastream.
  • Contains data on all companies listed on the World's stock markets, plus economics datasets for over 150 countries.
  • This database is only available on one computer on Level 3 of the Frenchay Library.
• FAME.
  • Up to 10 years of detailed financial information on public and private companies in the UK and Ireland with summarised information for a further 1 million companies.The database provides the capacity for peer analyses.
• MarketLine.
  • International database giving detailed profiles of 50,000 companies, 2000 industries and 50 countries.
  • Company profiles include: company overviews, business descriptions, company history, executive listings, product listings, locations, news and commentary.
  • Also includes merger and acquisition activity.
• Nexis.
  • Includes international company information such as company directories, annual reports, market surveys, financial information and detailed companies profiles for a range of countries and regions of the World.
• OSIRIS.
  • Information on listed companies around the world, including banks and insurance companies. Includes details of company accounts and key financials for last 10 years.
• Passport GMID.
  • A business information resource providing intelligence on industries, countries and consumers. It has a global perspective, with researchers working in 200 countries. Information includes full-text market reports, country reports, statistics, news and analysis. Tutorials can be accessed by clicking the 'help' button on the database.
• Science Direct.
  • Full text electronic journals published by Elsevier with abstracts from several hundred further titles. In addition to the sciences, coverage includes business, economics and social sciences. Dont forget that you can use the company / organisation name as a search term!
• Worldwide Registry of Company Registration Organisations.
  • A set of links provided by the UK Companies House to international official company registration organisations.

Tags

Directories

Directories are held in the Frenchay Campus Library in the Ref Area on Level 3. The information can vary from the address of the company to limited financial coverage. There is considerable overlap between directories, but each directory will contain slightly different information. Directories are especially useful for finding information about smaller or local companies.

Before using a directory read the introduction, not only to find out how it is arranged, but also how the information is collected or manipulated. This will help you judge the integrity of the information and whether it can be used for comparison. Directories are also available as Internet databases and a selection are included below.

• Regional Leads Reports.
  • County specific profiles of company performance. The Library holds the local regional directories. They are arranged alphabetically with geographical and industry indexes. Ref Area 338.0941 REG
• Hoovers Online.
  • American business information provider which offers a free level of searching for basic company information which often includes the company’s corporate web site address. This site has very useful international company information.
• Kelly Search.
  • Purchasing information on over 2 million worldwide companies and products and can be searched by product, service or company name. The website includes links to other business sources such as the company's web pages.
• Kompass.
  • A certain amount of free information including company name, address, web site, product details etc. This web site covers worldwide information.
• Yellow Pages.
  • Electronic version of the Yellow Pages which can often be the quickest way to find a company address. This is especially useful for finding local or smaller companies in the UK.
• International Directory of Company Histories.
  • This multi volume set of printed directories provides detailed information on the development of the world's largest and most influential companies. Shelved on the main shelves on Level 4 at 338.7409 INT.

Annual reports

There is a collection of printed company annual reports held on Level 3 of the Frenchay Library. Annual reports can also be accessed over the Internet. and a selection of these services are listed below.

• AnnualReports.com
  AnnualReports.com provides free access to a large collection of annual reports for US companies. You are able to look for a company through 7 search criteria: alphabetically, by company name, by ticker symbol, by sector, by industry, by exchange, and by index.
• Hugin.
  • Financial press releases, reports, financial calendars and company profiles of European companies (such as Nokia and Carlsberg) who choose to use Hugin as a distributor of their corporate news.
  • Access to the full text of annual reports.
• Nexis.
  • Includes international company information such as company directories, annual reports, market surveys, financial information and detailed companies profiles for a range of countries and regions of the World.
• Northcote.
  • Published financial reports and press releases of London Stock Exchange companies. 10 years worth of annual reports are listed if they are available.
  • You can search the site by FTSE index, alphabetical list of company names or industry sector.
  • Access is free but you do need to register. Registration allows you to access a "My portfolio" section which enables you to keep track of companies you are interested in.
• SCoRe: a national catalogue of company reports.
  • National union catalogue of company report holdings and collections from 6 UK libraries which have searchable holdings data including the British Library.
  • You can search by company name (and specify year required if you want) or browse by FT Sector or country. Search one, several or all collections.
  • The locations and access policies of the holding libraries are detailed.
  • This site is useful if you want to identify libraries which physically hold annual reports, especially pre-1995 reports.
  • NOTE: This catalogue does not provide full text electronic access to the reports.

Share price

• Datastream.
  • Contains data on all companies listed on the World's stock markets, plus economics datasets for over 150 countries.
  • This database is only available on one computer on Level 3 of the Frenchay Library
  • Risk Measurement Service.
  • Produced by the London Business School, this printed publication provides risk measures and other key data for over 2,000 British shares and for all industry sectors.
  • Explains what these measures mean and how you can use them effectively.
  • Shelved on Level 3 of the Library in the Ref Area 332.1.
• Big Charts.
  • Charting facility which allows you to create charts of share prices.
  • Click on the Global Link underneath the Enter Symbol/Keywords option at the top of the page, to search for public companies throughout the World.
  • The rest of the options on this site relate to the United States of America.
• Euroland.
  • Recent share prices from 15 stock exchanges from around the World.
  • You can set up alerts on specific companies as well as building your own portfolio of companies.
  • You can search this website in several languages.
• FAME.
  • Detailed financial information on public and private companies in the UK and Ireland.
  • Includes share price data e.g. 10 years of worth of stock data, weekly, monthly and summaries.
• FT.com.
  • Information about stock markets, company and industry performance within the UK and around the World.
  • The information can be accessed from the menus under 'company, markets or market data'.
  • The market data option provides an analytical charting option.
  • Full text access to the newspaper is available via Nexis.
    A Guide to Finding the Financial Times newspaper on Nexis UK is available.
  • This site also provides the option for creating a 'virtual' portfolio.
• London Stock Exchange.
  • Information about how the Stock Exchange works and a glossary of financial terms.
  • Share price information is available via the prices option.
  • Includes the full text of a variety of statistical factsheets. There are also some historical statistics.
  • There are a variety of tools available (after registration) for monitoring stock performance.
• World Federation of Stock Markets.
  • Global trade association for the exchange industry. comprised of regulated exchanges from all regions of the world.
  • Includes several full text survey and statistical publications.
  • This site provides access to the web sites of the member exchanges as well as exchanges in affiliate membership.
• Yahoo Finance.
  • Information on stock exchanges, interest rates and country profiles from around the World.
  • For company information, select the Research section on the left hand side.
  • Gives comprehensive share price information, company profiles, annual reports for UK and international companies.
  • Daily share prices going back a number of years can be found along with graphing options.
  • This site also provides the option for creating a ‘virtual’ portfolio.
  • Links to other Yahoo finance country sites can be found at the bottom of the Yahoo UK finance page.

Market info

Market reports often include useful company profiles. More information about market reports is available on the Marketing Information webpage.

News

For recent company information news and comment you will need to refer to newspapers and journals. There are also a number of internet news sites which will give you up to date company news.

• Databases, for news & commentary
• Internet news sites

Gateways

• RBA: Business Information on the Internet.
  A selection of internet sites gathered by one of the UK's leading Business Information Specialists, Karen Blakeman. The sites are evaluated and categorized. Topics covered include:
  • Company Financials and Annual Reports.
  • Company registration sites.
  • Industry sectors.
  • Mergers and Acquisitions.
  • Industry Specific Directories.
• The Business Library pages has a general gateways and search engines page.