Orbis - User Guide

Copyright © 2007 Bureau van Dijk Electronic Publishing (www.bvdep.com)

Orbis

Internet User Guide

iii

Table Of Contents 1 INTRODUCTION TO ORBIS............................................................................................................. 1

1.1 LOGGING ON ORBIS......................................................................................................................... 2 1.2 USER SUPPORT.................................................................................................................................. 3 1.3 GENERAL .......................................................................................................................................... 4

1.3.1 Top Definitions.......................................................................................................................... 4 1.3.2 Credit charges........................................................................................................................... 5

2 ORBIS DATA IN DETAIL .................................................................................................................. 7 2.1 INFORMATION PROVIDERS ................................................................................................................ 7 2.2 ACCOUNTS...................................................................................................................................... 15

2.2.1 Type of accounts ..................................................................................................................... 15 2.2.2 Formula of Accounts and Ratios............................................................................................. 16 2.2.3 Details About the Collection of Company Accounts ............................................................... 21

2.3 INDUSTRY CLASSIFICATION PRESENT ON ORBIS............................................................................ 85 2.4 FILINGS........................................................................................................................................... 87 2.5 STOCK DATA .................................................................................................................................. 90

2.5.1 Security and Price Information............................................................................................... 90 2.5.2 Current and Annual Stock Data.............................................................................................. 92 2.5.3 Current and Annual Stock Valuation ...................................................................................... 92 2.5.4 Monthly, Weekly and Daily Pricing Series ............................................................................. 92 2.5.5 Stock Data Ratios.................................................................................................................... 93

3 SOFTWARE OVERVIEW ................................................................................................................ 95 3.1 EXPORT SYSTEM............................................................................................................................. 95

3.1.1 Exporting Information............................................................................................................. 96 3.1.2 Viewing the progress and downloading exports ................................................................... 109 3.1.3 Sending information.............................................................................................................. 110

3.2 ANALYSES .................................................................................................................................... 111 3.2.1 Segmentation......................................................................................................................... 113 3.2.2 Aggregation........................................................................................................................... 129 3.2.3 Distribution ........................................................................................................................... 135 3.2.4 Concentration ....................................................................................................................... 141 3.2.5 Linear Regression ................................................................................................................. 147

3.3 WORKING WITH THE BVDEP ALERT SYSTEM............................................................................... 153 3.3.1 Including/modifying multiple companies in the Alert System ............................................... 155 3.3.2 Including a company set in the Alert System from the list of results..................................... 160 3.3.3 Including/modifying a search strategy in the Alert System ................................................... 164 3.3.4 Including/modifying a company set in the Alert System........................................................ 168 3.3.5 Including a single company in the Alert System.................................................................... 172 3.3.6 Managing & Configuring the Alert System........................................................................... 176 3.3.7 Configuring the alert settings................................................................................................ 179

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1 Introduction to ORBIS

ORBIS is a global database which has information on over 20 million companies. ORBIS now includes advanced search and analysis software so you can identify and evaluate companies around the world using just one BvDEP product.

The companies breakdown as follows:

• over 44,500 listed companies worldwide,

• over 28,000 banks and 7,600 insurance companies,

• 13.5 million European companies from 46 countries,

• 2.1 million US and Canadian companies,

• 3.1 million South and Central American companies,

• 1.3 million Japanese companies,

• 36,000 African companies.

The information is sourced from over 40 different information providers (IPs), all experts in their regions or disciplines. As well as descriptive information and the company financials, ORBIS contains further detail such as news, market research, ratings and country reports, scanned reports, ownership and M&A data.

ORBIS has a number of different reports per company. You can choose to view a summary report, a report that automatically compares a company to its peers or view more detailed reports that are taken from BvDEP’s specialist products. For listed companies, banks and insurance companies plus major private companies raw data reports are available.

Using ORBIS you can now search by any combination of over a hundred criteria. You can also now search the market research and news modules to find companies that are involved in specific markets or have related news articles.

ORBIS now includes advanced analysis options too, including peer and statistical analyses. You can also create an analysis matrix using the segmentation function.

You can choose to access the whole of ORBIS or the top 750,000 or 5 million companies. It is available on subscription or via a pay-per-view BvDEP credit account. These options can be combined for added flexibility.

ORBIS is available on the internet and as an intranet feed.

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1.1 Logging on ORBIS 1. Start your Internet browser and go to https://orbis.bvdep.com

2. In the following dialog, enter your user name and password in the appropriate boxes.

3. Passwords are Case Sensitive so be sure to type in your password with the appropriate case.

4. If you forgot your password, click on Forgot your password? so we can send it to you based on your Username or Email address. If you are unsure of these please contact your Account Manager or the closest helpdesk.

5. If you would like to access ORBIS without having to enter your Username and password, click on the 'Store Password' check-box.

6. Click on to begin.

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1.2 User Support Bureau van Dijk Electronic Publishing offers all users full support for both data and technical questions. For assistance, please visit our client support website or contact your account manager or the nearest Bureau van Dijk Electronic Publishing office:

Location Email Help Line Telephone Number

Amsterdam [email protected] +31 20 5400 110

Bahrain [email protected] +973 17 570 406

Beijing [email protected] +86 10 8515 2255

Bratislava [email protected] + 421 (2) 682 86 760

Brussels [email protected] + 32 2 639 06 06

Copenhagen [email protected] + 45 33 4545 20

Edinburgh [email protected] + 44 131 200 7110

Frankfurt [email protected] + 49 (69) 96 36 65 - 0

Geneva [email protected] + 41 22 830 05 44

Lisbon [email protected] + 351 21 321 01 55

London [email protected] + 44 20 7549 5050

Madrid [email protected] + 34 91 454 70 98

Milan [email protected] + 39 02 43 98 22 77

Moscow [email protected] + 7 495 681 86 71

New York [email protected] + 1 212 797 3560

Paris [email protected] + 33 1 53 45 46 00

Rome [email protected] + 39 06 85 23 71

San Francisco

[email protected] + 1 415 773 1107

Seoul [email protected] + 82 16 9580 0211

Singapore [email protected] + 65 6325 1230

Sydney [email protected] + 61 (2) 923 82 100

Tokyo [email protected] + 81 3 3580 0561

Vienna [email protected] + 43 1 606 11 98

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1.3 General 1.3.1 Top Definitions

1.3.1.1 TOP 150 000

Companies on ORBIS belong to the TOP 150 000 when they have:

Operating Revenue equal to at least 125 000 000 USD

OR Total assets equal to at least 250 000 000 USD

OR Employees equal to at least 1 000

OR Listed

NOTE: companies with ratios Operating Revenue per Employee or Total Assets per Employee below 1 250 USD are excluded from the TOP 150 000.

1.3.1.2 TOP 750 000

Companies on ORBIS belong to the TOP 750 000 when they have:



OR Employees equal to at least 150

OR Listed

NOTE: companies with ratios Operating Revenue per Employee or Total Assets per Employee below 1 250 USD are excluded from the TOP 750 000.

1.3.1.3 TOP 5 000 000

Companies on ORBIS belong to the TOP 5 000 000 when they have:



OR Employees equal to at least 15

OR Listed

Introduction to ORBIS

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1.3.2 Credit charges The number of available credits previously acquired is displayed in the upper left hand side of your screen.

The following table summarises the number of credits that will be deducted from your account when you display them.

Format Number of credits per company

Notes

List 1 (per variable)

-

First 25 companies are shown by default. Display of subsequent companies charged at 1 credit per company per variable.

- Exception for free variables apply

Profile 10 - Displays basic company information and profile section

8 - For Limited Financial (LF) records

4 - For US/Canada Limited Financial (LF) records

1 - For records with No financial (NF)

Standard Report/Executive Report

60 - Report is free if it has been viewed, printed or exported until the data is updated

80 - If company is a listed industrial company, bank or insurance company

8 - For Limited Financial (LF) records

4 - For US/Canada Limited Financial (LF) records

1 - For records with No financial (NF)

Peer Analysis 1 per variable

-

No credits charged for first option of a company compared to a Peer group.

Standard Peer Report 15 - Subject company costs 5 credits + 1 credit par company in the report

BvDEP News service 1 - Per article

Datamonitor Industry Profile 150 - Per profile

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Datamonitor Company Profile 150 - Per profile

Statistical Analysis

Aggregation 60 - Credits are charged regardless of the number of companies in the group.

Distribution of variable 1 - 1 credit is charged per variable per company per year. Each time a new variable or year is selected, 1 credit per company is charged.

Concentration analysis 1 - 1 credit is charged per company in the group. Each time a new variable or year is selected, 1 credit per company is charged.

Linear regression 1 - 2 credits are charged per company in the group. Each time a new independent/dependent variable is selected, 2 credits per company are charged.

Segmentation 60

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2 ORBIS data in detail

2.1 Information Providers

Information Provider

Coverage Contact Details

COMPANY RECORDS

C.C.I. of Romania Romania Business development center of Bucharest Bld. Octavian Goga nr.2, sector 3 74244 Bucharest Romania Tel. : 40 (1) 327.34.02 Fax : 40 (1) 327.34.68 E-mail: [email protected]

COFACE INTERCREDIT

Slovenia Cankarjeva 3 1000 Ljubljana Slovenia Tel. : 386 (1) 425 90 65 Fax : 386 (1) 425 91 30 E-mail: [email protected]

Coface Mope Portugal Rua de Santa Marta 43 E/F, 5° 1150 - 293 Lisboa Portugal Tel. : 351 (21) 358 88 00 Fax : 351 (21) 358 88 01 E-mail: [email protected]

Coface SCRL France/Monaco 5 quai Jaÿr - BP 9063 69255 Lyon cedex 09 France Tel. : 33 4 72 85 10 00 Fax : 33 4 72 85 10 77 E-mail: [email protected]

Creditinfo Czech Republic, s.r.o.

Czech Republic Nad Boticem 593/8 102 00 Praha 10 Czech Republic tel.: 420 271 960 166-9 fax: 420 271 960 161 E-mail: [email protected]

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CreditInfo Group Iceland/Malta/Cyprus Brautarholt 10-14 105 Reykjavik Iceland Tel. : 354 550 9600 Fax : 354 550 9601 E-mail: [email protected]

Creditinfo Slovakia, s.r.o.

Slovak Republic Stachanovska 9 821 05 Bratislava Slovak Republic tel.: 421 (0) 2 4342 7211 fax: 421 (0) 2 4341 0021 E-mail: [email protected]

CreditInform AS Norway Sørkedalsvn. 10C Majorstuen N-0303 Oslo Norway Tel. : 47 (81) 55 54 54 Fax : 47 (22) 46 53 90 E-mail: [email protected]

Creditreform Austria

Austria Wirtschaftsauskunftei Kubicki KG, Muthgasse 36-40 1190 Wien Austria Tel. : 43 (1) 218 6220-0 Fax : 43 (1) 218 6220-4 E-mail: [email protected]

Creditreform Bulgaria

Bulgaria/Ukraine/Rep. of Macedonia

JK Ilinden, bl. 129, vh. B 1309 Sofia Bulgaria Tel. : 359 (2) 929 3993 Fax : 359 (2) 920 0994 E-mail: [email protected]

Creditreform Croatia

Croatia Savska cesta 66/VIII 10000 Zagreb Croatia Tel. : 385 (1) 45 6311 477 Fax : 385 (1) 45 6311 499 E-mail: [email protected]

Creditreform-Interinfo

Hungary József utca 13 1083 Budapest Hungary

ORBIS data in detail

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Tel. : 36 (1) 3333 000 Fax : 36 (1) 3333 111 E-mail: [email protected]

Creditreform Latvia Latvia Skanstes iela 13 1013 Riga Latvia Tel. : 371 (7) 50 10 30 Fax : 371 (7) 50 10 40 E-mail: [email protected]

Creditreform St. Petersburg

Russia Box 1009 190000 St. Petersburg Russia Tel. : 7 (812) 570-4283; 570-4284 Fax : 7 (812) 570-4285 E-mail: [email protected]

Honyvem Italy Via Corfù, 102 25125 Brescia Italy Tel. : 39 (30) 225831 Fax : 39 (30) 2234250 E-mail: [email protected]

ICAP Greece 64 Vas. Sophia Avenue 115 28 Athens Greece Tel. : 30 (1) 7200 000 Fax : 30 (1) 7250 634 E-mail: [email protected]

InfoCredit Poland ul. Smolna 40 00-375 Warsaw Poland Tel. : 48 (22) 826 61 78 Fax : 48 (22) 826 81 84 E-mail: [email protected]

Informa Spain Avda. de la Industria, 32 28108 Alcobendas - Madrid Spain Tel. : 34 (91) 661 71 19 Fax : 34 (91) 661 90 60 E-mail: [email protected]

Informa del Peru Peru Informa Peru S.A. Calle Jorge Chávez 631 2º Miraflores - Lima

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Perù Tel. : (51 1) 6173333 Fax : (51 1) 6173334 Email: [email protected]

Jordans United Kingdom/Ireland 20-22 Bedford Row London WC1R 4JS United Kingdom Tel. : 44 (117) 923 06 00 Fax : 44 (117) 923 00 63 E-mail: [email protected]

Købmandstandens OplysningsBureau

Denmark Gammel Mønt 4 1117 Copenhagen K Denmark Tel. : 45 - 33 11 12 00 Fax : 45 - 33 11 16 29 E-mail: [email protected]

Krediidiinfo Estonia Pronksi 19 10124 Tallinn Estonia Tel. : 372 (6) 665 96 00 Fax : 372 (6) 665 96 01 E-mail: [email protected]

LexisNexis The Netherlands Van de Sande Bakhuyzenstraat 4 1000 AD Amsterdam The Netherlands Tel. : 31 (20) 515 94 58 Fax : 31 (20) 515 94 46 E-mail: [email protected]

Creditreform Belgrade

Serbia and Montenegro/ Bosnia-Herzegovina

Palmira Toljatija 5/III 11000 Novi Beograd Serbia and Montenegro Tel. : 381 (11) 2606 876 Fax : 381 (11) 672 998 E-mail: [email protected]

Creditreform Lietuva UAB

Lithuania P.O. Box 2878 01009 Vilnius Lithuania Tel. : 370 (5) 2661380 Fax : 370 (5) 2791308 E-mail: [email protected]

Suomen Finland Työpajankatu 10 A, 6th floor 00580 Helsinki


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Asiakastieto Oy Finland Tel. : 358 (9) 148 861 Fax : 358 (9) 735 338 E-mail: [email protected]

UC Sweden 117 88 Stockholm Sweden Tel. : 46 (8) 670 90 00 Fax : 46 (8) 670 90 20 E-mail: [email protected]

Verband der Vereine Creditreform

Germany Hellersbergstrasse 12 41460 Neuss Germany Tel. : 49 (2131) 109 302 Fax : 49 (2131) 109 82 23 E-mail: [email protected]

CIBI Philippines 2/F CIBI Information Center 3308 Zapote cor. Mascardo Sts., Makati City Philippines Tel: (632) 899-0015 to 17 Fax: (632) 890-0036 Email : [email protected]

CMIE (Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy)

India 11, Apple Heritage, 54-C, Andheri Kurla Road, Andheri(E) Mumbai Maharashtra India 400093 Tel.: 91-22-26870595 / 91-22-26870090 Fax: 91-22-26870696 Email : [email protected]

DP Information Group

Singapore 3 Killiney Road #04-08 Winsland House 1 Singapore 239519 Tel: 65 6738 1900 Fax: 65 6738 8982 email: [email protected]

Huaxia Credit China 10F,AVIC Tower,No.2 Dong San Huan Nan Lu, Jian Guo Men Wai, Beijing, 100022 China Tel. : 010-6568 7932/6568 7917 Fax : 010-6568 5691/6568 4247

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E-mail: [email protected]

IBISWorld Australia 1 Collins Street MELBOURNE, VIC 3000 Australia Tel: +613 9650 2166 Fax:+613 9650 4033 E-mail: [email protected]

KIS Info Korea (150-010) 15-28 Yeoido-Dong, Yeongdeungpo-Gu, Seoul Korea Tel. : 82-2-3771-4728

Taiwan Economic Journal

Taiwan Taipei-10th Fl., No.173,Sec.2,Chan-An East Rd., Taiwan Tel. : 886-2-27529777 Fax : 886-2-27771436 E-mail: [email protected]

Teikoku Databank America, Inc.

Japan 747 Third Ave, 25th Fl New York, NY 10017 USA Tel. : +1(212) 421-9805 Fax : +1(212) 421-9806 E-mail: [email protected]

Worldbox Switzerland/Hong Kong/New Zealand

Breitackerstraße 1 8702 Zollikon/Zürich Switzerland Tel. : 41 (1) 391 34 31 Fax : 41 (1) 391 37 86 E-mail: [email protected]

World'Vest Base Inc.

Worldwide - listed non US companies

1335 North Dearborn Chicago IL 60610 US USA Tel. : +(1) 312 922 3155 E-mail: [email protected]

Fitch Ratings Worldwide - banks/insurance

Eldon House 2 Eldon Street London EC2M 7UA United Kingdom


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Tel: +44 (0) 207 417 4222 Fax: +44 (0) 207 417 4242

D & B North, Central & South America / Africa

excluding South Africa

103 JFK Parkway Short Hills, NJ 07078 USA Tel: +1 800 932 0025 E-mail: Click here

Reuters Listed US companies 85, Fleet Street London EC4P 4AJ United Kingdom Tel: +44 207 250 1122 Fax: +44 207 353 3002 E-mail: [email protected]

TransUnion ITC South Africa Wanderers Office Park 52 Corlett Drive, P.O. Box 4522 Illovo, Johannesburg South Africa Tel: +27 (0) 11 214 6000 E-mail: [email protected]

STOCK DATA

Fininfo Worldwide 5 Boulevard Montmartre 750002 Paris France Tel: +33 (0) 1 53 00 01 00 Fax: +33 (0) 1 53 00 01 10

SCANNED REPORTS

Global Reports Worldwide 3930 Knowles Avenue Suite 201 Kensington, Maryland 20895 USA Tel: +1-877-643-6539 or 1-301-942-3007 Fax: +1-301-942-3485 E-mail: [email protected]

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NEWS

Reuters Worldwide 85, Fleet Street London EC4P 4AJ United Kingdom Tel: +44 207 250 1122 Fax: +44 207 353 3002 E-mail: [email protected]

Financial Times Worldwide Number One Southwark Bridge SE1 9HL London United Kingdom Tel: +44 20 78733000

Dow Jones Worldwide 200, Liberty Street 10281 New York USA Tel: +1 212 416 2000 Fax: +1 212 416 2658 E-mail: [email protected]

Zephyr Worldwide Croxley House, Lloyd Street M2 5ND Manchester United Kingdom Tel: +44 (161) 838 9555 Fax: +44 (161) 838 9550 E-mail: [email protected]

SEC FILINGS

Edgar Online Worldwide 50 Washington Street 9th Floor Norwalk, CT 06854 USA Tel: 203-852-5666 Fax: 203-852-5667 E-mail: [email protected]

INDUSTRY & COMPANY REPORTS


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Datamonitor Worldwide Charles House

108-110 Finchley Road

London NW3 5JJ

United Kingdom

Tel: +44 20 7675 7000

Fax: +44 20 7675 7500 E-mail: [email protected]

2.2 Accounts 2.2.1 Type of accounts On ORBIS there are some (mainly the quoted) companies that publish two sets of accounts: one based on the ‘annual reports (IFRS preferred)’ and another based on the ‘local registry filings’. Furthermore for each of these sets of accounts we can have consolidated accounts, unconsolidated accounts or both accounts.

By default all searches are executed, when available, on the ‘annual reports’, otherwise the ‘local registry filings’ and by preference on the consolidated accounts.

These settings can however be changed via the ‘Profile’, in the section ‘Search settings’.

Each type of account is given a code (which we call "consolidation code") according to the following logic:

• Consolidated account, when there is no recorded unconsolidated companion:

C1

• Consolidated account, when there is an unconsolidated companion: C2

• Unconsolidated account, when there is no recorded consolidated companion:

U1

• Unconsolidated account, when there is a recorded consolidated companion:

U2

• Limited number of financial item: LF

• No financial items at all: NF

By definition, the number of accounts with the C2 code equals the number of accounts with the U2 code.

The ‘LF’ code is attached to companies with limited financial figures; usually we receive a Total of Employees, a Turnover, a Shareholders Funds or a Capital figure or 2, 3 out of these items.

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In addition, there are 2 particular codes to search by:

• No recent accounts: NRF

• No recent limited financials: NRLF

The ‘NRF’ code is attached to companies with accounts which last available year is 3 years or more, older than the base year.

The ‘NRLF’ code is attached to companies with limited financial items which last available year is 3 years or more, older than the base year.

As a matter of information, the companies of ORBIS break down as follows according to their account type (figures relate to October 2006 and are rounded to multiples of 10.000):

U1 8 100 000

C1 60 000

C2/U2 100 000

NRF 860 000

LF 6 360 000

NRLF 140 000

NF 3 760 000

[TOTAL of 19 380 000 company accounts, figures based on the October 2006 update.]

2.2.2 Formula of Accounts and Ratios The presentation of the information follows a tried and tested approach, recognised and approved by leading accountancy bodies and practitioners in the field.

The layout of the data is designed for ease of comprehension, and uses terminology widely accepted in the financial world. The emphasis is on both consistency in the treatment of accounts, and accuracy in the recording of data. The overriding aim is to provide information in a form, which can be compared meaningfully between companies from varying countries, and within the same company, between different years.

The data entry procedures include rigorous checking of individual records and updates as they are entered, with many of the data fields subject to automatic validation on entry. Information on financial and performance ratios is calculated automatically using standard formulae, which are explained in detail below.


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2.2.2.1 Balance Sheet

Label Formula

404 Fixed Assets 405+406+407

405 Intangible Fixed Assets

406 Tangible Fixed Assets

407 Other Fixed Assets

408 Current Fixed Assets 409+410+411

409 Stocks

410 Debtors

411 Other Current Assets

440 Cash & Cash Equivalent

412 Total Assets 404+408

413 Shareholder Funds 414+415

414 Capital

415 Other Shareholder Funds

416 Non-Current Liabilities 417+418

417 Long Term Debt

418 Other Non-Current Liabilities

419 Current Liabilities 420+421+422

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420 Loans

421 Creditors

422 Other Current Liabilities

423 Total Shareholder Funds & Liabilities 413+416+419

Memo lines:

424 Working Capital 409+410-421

452 Net Current Assets 408-419

450 Enterprise Value Market Cap + 417+420-440

425 Employees

2.2.2.2 Profit & Loss Account

Label Formula

448 Operating Revenue (Turnover)

426 Sales

441 Costs of Goods Sold

442 Gross Profit 448-441

443 Other Operating Expenses


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427 Operating P/L [=EBIT] 442-443

444 Financial Revenue

445 Financial Expenses

428 Financial P/L 444-445

429 P/L before Tax & Extr. Items 427+428

430 Taxation

431 P/L after Tax 429-430

446 Extr. and Other Revenue

447 Extr. and Other Expenses

432 Extr. and Other P/L 446-447

433 P/L for Period [=Net Income] 431+432

Memo lines:

451 Export Turnover

434 Material Costs

435 Cost of Employees

436 Depreciation

437 Interest Paid

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438 Cash Flow 433+436

439 Added Value 430+433+435+436+437

449 EBITDA 427+436

2.2.2.3 Ratios

Label Formula

500 Current Ratio 408 / 419

501 Liquidity Ratio (408 - 409) / 419

502 Shareholder Liquidity Ratio 413 / 416

503 Solvency Ratio (%) (413 / 412) * 100

504 Gearing Ratio (%) ((416 + 420) / 413) * 100

505 Shareholder Funds per Employee (monetary value)

413 / 425

506 Working Capital per Employee (monetary value)

424 / 425

507 Total Assets per Employee (monetary value) 412 / 425

508 Profit Margin (%) (429 / 448) * 100

509 Return on Shareholder Funds (%) (429 / 423) * 100

510 Return on Capital Employed (%) ((429 + 437) / (413 + 416)) * 100

511 Return on Total Assets (%) (429 / 412) * 100

512 Stock Turnover 448 / 409

513 Collection Period (days) (410 / 448) * 360

514 Credits Period (days) (421 / 448) * 360

515 Net Assets (Turnover) 448 / (413 + 416)


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516 Costs of Employees / Operating Revenue (%) (435 / 448) * 100

517 Operating Revenue per Employee (monetary value)

448 / 425

518 Average Costs per Employee (monetary value)

435 / 425

519 Profit per Employee (monetary value) 429 / 425

520 Interest Cover 427 / 437

521 Cash Flow / Turnover (%) (438 / 448) * 100

522 Gross Margin (%) (442 / 448) * 100

523 EBITDA Margin (%) [(427 + 436) / 448] * 100

524 EBIT Margin (%) (427 / 448) * 100

2.2.3 Details About the Collection of Company Accounts

2.2.3.1 Listed Companies

US Listed Companies

1. Which companies have to file accounts?

All listed companies

2. How many companies does that represent?

8,000

3. Which type of companies legally do not have to file any form of accounts even though they would meet the selection criteria for ORBIS?

-

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4. Can companies file less information than the previous years or not file accounts at all in some years?

If so, why?

-

5. Where are the accounts filed?

SEC

6. What is the maximum period a company can take to file its accounts after its year end?

3 months

7. What is the average time of filing accounts by the companies?

2 months

8. Is the format of the accounts standardised?

No

9. At what conditions are the accounts made available to the public? - form - price - place

Free annual reports

10. Do companies generally comply with the legal obligation?

Yes

Data provider for ORBIS

REUTERS

11. What is the maximum possible period between a company filing its accounts and the records appearing on the database?

4 weeks

12. What is the average period between a company filing its accounts and the records appearing on the

1.5 week


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database?

Non US Listed Companies


All listed companies


29,000


-


If so, why?

-


Annual reports


9 months


4 months


No

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9. At what conditions are the accounts made available to the public?

- form - price - place

Free annual reports


Yes


WVB, HUAXIA, KIS, TEIKOKU


6 weeks

12. What is the average period between a company filing its accounts and the records appearing on the database?

2 weeks

2.2.3.2 Industrial Companies

COUNTRY: Australia


Foreign owned, public listed companies and govt owned enterprises.


65% of companies IBIS supply to ORBIS.

3. Which type of companies legally do not have to file any form of accounts even though they would meet the selection criteria for

Private companies.


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ORBIS?

4. Can companies file less information than the previous years or not file accounts at all in some years ? If so, why ?

Yes. There are a number or reasons but majority are not disclosed to the public but granted relief by the regulator (ASIC).

5. Where are the accounts filed ? At ASIC – Australian Securities and Investments Commission


There is no definite length, again this relates to discretion between ASIC and the company. However if a company is lodging accounts normally would take between 6-12 months.

7. What is the average time of filing accounts by the companies ?


Yes.

9. At what conditions are the accounts made available to the public ? - form - price - place

By form – electronic version. By number of pages i.e. more than 10 pages around $40 less than 10 around $20.

Via email – purchasing is conducted only to agents of ASIC.

10. Do companies generally comply with the legal obligation ?

Yes.

Data provider for ORBIS IBISWorld Business Information

11. What is the maximum possible period between a company filing its accounts and the records appearing on the database ?

3 months.

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12. What is the average period between a company filing its accounts and the records appearing on the database ?

6 weeks

COUNTRY: Austria

1. Which companies have to file accounts ? AG, starting 1994 also GmbH and very large companies

2. How many companies does that represent ? 50,000

3. Which type of companies legally do not have to file any form of accounts even though they would meet the selection criteria for ORBIS ?

Private companies


No

5. Where are the accounts filed ? Amtsblatt – Bundesanzeiger or Register Court

6. What is the maximum period a company can take to file its accounts after its year end ?

12 months


12 months

8. Is the format of the accounts standardised ? No


Paper EUR 5,-- per page Register Court


Not at time


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Data provider for ORBIS?

Creditreform


3 months


1 month

COUNTRY: Belgium

1. Which companies have to file accounts ? SA, SPRL, Soc. Coop., SCS, SNC, GIE

2. How many companies does that represent ? 270,000


None


No

5. Where are the accounts filed ? National Bank of Belgium


7 months


7 months

8. Is the format of the accounts standardised ? Yes

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Microfilm, paper, magnetic tapes, CD-ROM 6.50 € per account National Bank of Belgium


Yes


National Bank of Belgium, EURO DB


3 months


1 month

COUNTRY: Bosnia and Herzegovina, part Republika Srpska


Each and every registered and active company, regardless to its legal form (Ltd., Joint Stock company, Public or State company, Cooperative society, Limited partnership, General partnership, Socially owned company) and size have to file accounts.

2. How many companies does that represent ?

Nearly 8,000 companies (Republika Srpska)


Even if they would meet the selection criteria for ORBIS, following type of companies legally do not have to file any form of accounts : Sole proprietorship, Workshops and Trading shops.


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Companies are not allowed to file less information than the previous years or not file accounts at all, with an exception if the subject company went under bankruptcy proceedings.

5. Where are the accounts filed ?

Centralna Banka Bosne i Hercegovine


2 months


2 months

8. Is the format of the accounts standardised ?

Yes


Accounts are available to the public only if they are published by the company itself. Otherwise the accounts are not available to the public. Legislation referring to this matter is not clear.


Yes


MID Group


7 months. This period is needed for the official authorities to process the data for the whole country (economy). Immediately after processing records are transferred to MID Group database.

12. What is the average period between a company filing its accounts and the records appearing

5 months

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on the database ?

COUNTRY: Croatia

1. Which companies have to file accounts ?

Private and public limited liability companies, general and limited partnerships, cooperatives have to file accounts to the State Authorities (State Register of accounts, established 2003).

2. How many companies does that represent ? Ca 70.000 legal subjects file accounts, although there are ca 200.000 registered subjects


private businesses, sole Proprietorship


Some companies in spite of the obligation do not file accounts

5. Where are the accounts filed ? Since 2003 at State Register of accounts. Public companies file account to the Securities Commission and to Stock Exchange.


3-4 months (after that the accounts are processed in the register and become available after 5-6 months since the year end)


3-4 months


31

8. Is the format of the accounts standardised ? Yes


The accounts are available to the public at the State register of Accounts in paper or file, the price depend on the form and is cca EUR 10,00-12,00 per year per company. Public limited companies file accounts to Securities Commission and Stock Exchanges. They are available for free


Active companies usually do


Creditreform Croatia


max 3 months after the accounts become available


2 months

COUNTRY: Bulgaria

1. Which companies have to file accounts ? All companies, which match 2 of the following 3 criteria: at least 50 persons staff, total assets at least eur 500.000, turnover at least eur 1.000.000


Less 10% of all active companies


None such companies. An exception may be state companies of strategic interest

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The amount of the information filed is clearly specified by the law but the companies usually file only 6 to 7 balance sheet's figures . If for some year a given company does not match 2 of the A.M. three criteria, it will certainly not publish any financial information for this year.

5. Where are the accounts filed ? Mainly in the local press, national dailies, accountancy reviews, internet etc. It is difficult to track down every single balance sheet as some are published even in the factory's local newspaper


For the ordinary financial accounts - 01.june / for consolidated accounts - 30.september


May-June


Yes, but when it comes to publication the companies usually chose some extremely shortened format.


All of the above. Usually one has to follow the whole available press, national and local, the format of the balance sheets thus collected varies, the price to be paid varies as well.


Yes

11. Data provider for ORBIS

Creditreform


4 months


3 months


33

COUNTRY: Denmark


1. All limited (A/S) and Private limited companies (ApS) and Limited partnerships by shares (P/S) must publish accounts. Other company types with limited liability such as some limited and general partnerships and profit associations and foundations furthermore must publish accounts. However there are some very complicated and detailed legal exceptions to these rules.


2. It represents approximately 150 000 companies.


3. All other company types than stated in ad1 e.g. sole proprietorships do not have to publish accounts, but if they do not they do not meet the selection criteria for ORBIS either. There may however be some companies that apparently have published accounts, but where the accounts do not contain any figures but only commends on the company meeting certain exceptions to the rules of having to publish accounts etc.


4. The company types stated in ad1 section 2 can in some years avoid publishing accounts depending on whether they meet certain legal requirements or not. Factors as the amount of certain figures for various account items, and type of ownership are involved here.

5. Where are the accounts filed ? 5.The Commercial Register (Companies House)


6. Accounts must be at Companies House within 5 months from the accounts closing date. For Public Limited Companies this is 4 months.


7. Approximately 4 months.

8. Is the format of the accounts There are certain legal directions for filing (the

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standardised ? format of) accounts but not a certain standard.


You can get a hardcopy of the accounts or you can get it e-mailed. You can also get to look at the accounts at Companies House on a PC. - hardcopy : DKK 100 - Email : DKK 37 - Look-up at Companies House – Free Erhvervs- & Selskabsstyrelsen The Commercial Register (Companies House) Kampmannsgade 1 DK 1780 Copenhagen V


Yes


KOB A/S


11.Everything is possible here, there are examples of filed accounts not being published for months. KOB even have to check up on Companies House because they regularly fail to deliver some of the published accounts. Normally though it takes no more than up to 14 days from the filing of an account at Companies House to the publishing of the account, and from 1-5 working days for the account to be appearing on KOBs database.


12. 1 week


35

COUNTRY: Cyprus


It is compulsory for companies to prepare financial statements, only public companies. It is compulsory for private companies to prepare financial statements. Private companies obliged to file accounts with there 2004 annual returns, for year end 2003. It is important to note that not all live companies will file accounts in 2004 AR


500 Public companies


Private Limited, this will change during the next 2 years


5. Where are the accounts filed ? Companies House, web


6 months


6 months


No

9. At what conditions are the accounts made available to the public ?

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Hard copy


Yes


Icecredit Info


2 months


COUNTRY: Czech Republic

1. Which companies have to file accounts ? All companies filled in Business Register

2. How many companies does that represent ? 330.000 (many companies could be inactive, only registered with no financial statement)


Private Entrepreneurs


Companies can put into BR full FS or shorted FS


37


Tax office and Business Register

6. What is the maximum period a company can take to file its accounts after its year end ? 7. What is the average time of filing accounts by the companies ?

6 months 6 months


Yes


Hard copy in BR partly PNG files on pubic server Obchodny Vestnik (= Official Bulletin)


There is no control


Albertina Data


4-5 weeks


2 weeks in individual cases we are able to get and process FS in 1-2 days

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COUNTRY: Estonia


Public & private limited companies, co-operatives


Ca 40,000 – 45,000


- sole traders - partnerships - association


No


Trade Register = Commercial Register


6 months


4 – 6 months


Yes


- standardized - 25 EEK - Register = Commercial Register


39


Yes


Krediidiinfo


12 months


3 - 6 months

COUNTRY: Finland


- All joint-stock companies and all co-operatives; - Limited partnerships, partnerships and private firms, which meet two of the following three conditions: - turnover over 7.30 million EUR;

- balance sheet total over 3.65 million EUR;

- number of personnel over 50


The exact number is not known, but the estimate is approx. 120,000 companies


All other companies except the ones stated above


Yes;

1. If the company is a limited partnership, partnership or firm, and the company’s size has fallen below the limit values mentioned above, the company is not obligated to file the accounts;

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2. if only one of the following three limit values is met:

3. turnover over 3.4 million EUR

4. balance sheet total over 1.7 million EUR

5. number of personnel over 25, the company can file its accounts in a shortened form, in which no turnover or direct costs are shown

5. Where are the accounts filed ? At the Trade Register


6 months


10 months


Yes; the accounts have to be made on the basis of formulas according to the Bookkeeping Act


a. form

- official accounts containing the annual report, profit and loss account, balance sheet, notes to the accounts, and audit report;

b. price

- depending on the case, from 5 to 10 EUR;

c. the Trade Register


No, approx. 70% of the companies obligated to file their accounts do it on time

11. Data provider for ORBIS Suomen Asiakastieto Oy


41


Approx. 4 months


Approx. 1 month

COUNTRY: France


SA, SARL, SCA, SCACS, SAS, EURL, SA DIR, SNC of which the partners are not individuals


1,000,000


SNC, Affaires Personnelles, Coopératives, SCI, Administration, Associations, GIE, &ldots;


In general not

5. Where are the accounts filed ? Courts (Tribunal de Commerce, Tribunal de Grande Instance)


6 months (4 months for listed companies)


7-8 months, except for quoted companies

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Yes


Paper or on-line 15 € courts


65%


COFACE SCRL


4 months


1 month


43

COUNTRY: Germany


corporate enterprises (AG, GmbH) and cooperatives (e.G).


small cooperate enterprises: approx. 950.000

definition (§ 267 HGB):

staff: <= 50 individuals

turnover: <= 8.030 TEUR

total assets: <= 4.015 TEUR

at least two criteria must apply

They have to announce only the balance sheet information and the notes on the accounts.

medium sized cooperate enterprises: approx. 60.000


staff: between 50 and 250 individuals

turnover: between 8.030 TEUR and 32.120 TEUR

total assets: between 4.015 TEUR and 16.060 TEUR


They have to announce the balance sheet information as well as the statement of income and the notes on the accounts.

big cooperate enterprises: approx. 15.000

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staff: more then 250 individuals

turnover: more then 32.120 TEUR

total assets: more then 16.060 TEUR



cooperatives: approx. 7.500



Private companies


In general not


big cooperate enterprises: Bundesanzeiger

small and medium sized cooperate enterprises:

Register Court

cooperatives: cooperative register


45


12 months


9-12 months, except for quoted companies


No. Creditreform enter all annual accounts in a standardised formula.


Copies different register court


Only 10,000 large/medium companies and 25,000 small companies are publishing their accounts


Creditreform and Creditreform Rating AG


between 1 and 3 month


between 1 and 4 weeks

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COUNTRY: Great Britain


Limited, PLC


1,000,000


Unlimited


Not unless they have a turnover less than £10,000,000

5. Where are the accounts filed ? Companies Registry a Government Office


10 Months for Limited Companies and 7 for PLC’s


Not Known


Of sorts


47


Images 2.50 Euros

Companies Registry


Yes

Data provider for ORBIS Jordans Limited


6 weeks


3 weeks

COUNTRY: Greece


Societe Anonyme and Limited Liability Companies.


Societe Anonyme and Limited Liability Companies represent the 55% of total companies, we send you. However the Societe Anonyme and Limited Liability Companies that publish Balance sheet represent the 35-40% of total companies, we send you.

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General Partnerships, Limited Partnerships, Sole Proprietorships


Yes, if they operate under liquidation status

5. Where are the accounts filed ? National Printing Institution


6 months


2 months for the stock companies 5 months for the remaining companies


Yes


Form


Yes

Data provider for ORBIS ICAP


49


10-15 days


3-5 days

COUNTRY: Hong Kong


There are no legal requirements to file their accounts in Hong Kong. Public quoted companies make their financial statements available and all are collected, analysed and provided to the ORBIS database.


1100 Approximately


The are no requirements for companies to file their annual accounts


See 3 above

5. Where are the accounts filed ? N/A

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N/A


N/A


Those companies that provide financial information do not necessarily present in a standardised format, although in recent years the trend to reporting under IFRS are improving.


Only public quoted companies – accounts can generally be obtained direct from the company, or hard copies from Wordbox AG.


See 3 above

Data provider

Worldbox Business Intelligence


Maximum possible period between company publishing their accounts and the information appearing in the database is 3 months.


Generally in the month following publication.


51

COUNTRY: Hungary


All companies have to file accounts, except private enterprises. The companies have to send the accounts to the Ministry of Justice and to the Registry Court. The one-person firms and the limited deposit companies do not have to send it to the Ministry of Justice.


About 40%


The private enterprises are not obliged to file accounts


There are about 35 different types of accounts. The form depends on the legal form, the region, etc. In case the company does not give the account, it must pay some penalty, but there is no controlling and punishing system and does not work.

5. Where are the accounts filed ? Ministry of Justice and the Registry Court


Term of giving an account is 31 May. The problem is that the Ministry of Justice starts to process the data at that time, so these are available on computer first in November. There are often mistakes and clerical errors in the reports. By the Registry Court the problem is, that there is not enough time and capacity to classify the accounts to the company's documents, so these data are not available even though the company has filed them


It is typical that companies give their balance reports only for the end of term, so for 31 May. Only those balance sheet reports must be filed, which are accepted by the owners/member's

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meeting. Many companies wriggle out of the obligation as the owners did not accept it.


Partially yes, the main points of the balance sheet reports. The whole report has to be published in the newspapers. Companies at stock exchange are obliged to do so.


You can see the documents free of charge at the Registry Court if they are available, but there is less and less from year to year or buy from the Ministry of Justice for EUR 30 only approx. from November if the company filed it and was processed at all.


No, that is why Creditreform updates the information frequently from various sources.


Creditreform Hungary


There is no maximum period. We build our database based on requests, and we collect the data of every company when we make a report. In Hungary the balance sheets are usually available in the middle of the next year. So the first 2003 accounts are available now. But we do not process all of them when they were published. We collect the balance sheets separately for ORBIS and we endeavour to get more data and the currently updated data would be available for everyone.


It is not easy to calculate the average period, but 12 months is a good approximation.


53

COUNTRY: Iceland


Sameignarfélag (fulfil two out of the three following prerequisites : total assets > 230 ML ISK, operating revenue > 460 ML ISK, average number of employees > 50, or if the mother company has to file accounts), Samvinnufelag, Samlagsfelag (if mother company has to file accounts), Einkahlutafélag, Hlutafélag.


Approx. 20,000 companies were to file their accounts.


Einkafyrirtaeki or Proprietorship, Non-Profit Associations


Yes, due to activity/income changes

5. Where are the accounts filed ? Director of Internal Revenue


8 months


10 months


No

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Paper100 ISK/page Director of Internal Revenue Office


Generally companies do comply with the legal obligation, but not all of them.


Icecredit Info


Approx. 6 weeks


Approx. 3 weeks

COUNTRY: Ireland


Limited


100,000

3. Which type of companies legally do not have to file any form of accounts even though they would meet the selection criteria for

Unlimited


55

ORBIS ?


Yes, Because of section 17

5. Where are the accounts filed ? Irish Companies Registry


9 Months


Not Known


No


Images 2.50 Euros Irish Registry


Just starting too, Fines imposed for late filing


Jordans Limited


16 weeks

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12- 14 weeks

COUNTRY: Japan

1) Which companies have to file Accounts?

All sorts of corporations are obliged. However, in case of medium and small companies, the obligation is sometimes dispensable on present showing. All of listed companies should submit financial statements to stock exchanges to where each company belongs.

In addition, companies which need a permit or license for starting up their business such as construction companies, building and house sales agents etc are to be filed into each authority where their industries belong.

2)How many companies does that represent?

Not available.

3) Which type of companies legally do not have to file any form of accounts even though they would meet the selection criteria for ORBIS?

Companies are obliged to submit their financial statements every year with no exception.

Format of statements basically depends on each company or each authority although obligatory contents are more and less fixed. Information quantity might be differed within the range.

4) Can companies to file less information than the previous years or not file accounts at all in some years?

Companies are obliged to submit their financial statements every year with no exception.

Format of statements basically depends on each company or each authority although obligatory contents are more and less fixed. Information quantity might be differed within the range.


57

5)Where are the accounts filed?

- At stock exchanges or authorities where company’s industry belongs to.

6) What is the maximum period that a company can take time to file its accounts after its year end?

- About 3 months after closing its account.

7) What is the average time of filing accounts by the companies?

- Not available.

8) Is the format of the accounts standardized?

- It depends on each authority. Some authorities force affiliated companies to submit their statements in same format, but some are not.

9) At what conditions are the accounts made available to the public?

-You have to visit directly at an authority, to where the company’s industry belongs, to examine or obtain filed company’s statement (format is same as which the company submits).

In case of the Legal Affairs Bureau, you pay 300 yen for a revenue stamp. In the other cases, you might pay nothing or pay more.

10) Do companies generally comply with the legal obligation in Japan?

- Yes, compared with companies in western countries.

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COUNTRY: Korea


1. According to the Act of External Audit of Corporations, a stock company whose total values of assets as of the end of immediately preceding business year are not less than 7billion won is subject to an accounting audit by an external auditor with respect to the financial statements, consolidated financial statements and combined financial statements.


2. There are 13,996 companies in total in Korea as of March 2, 2005, which have to file accounts according to the Act. This figure includes 1,585 listed companies.


3. Companies exempted from the external audit are as follow: stock companies to which the Framework Act on Administration of Government-Invested Institutions applies - stock companies whose bank account is suspended (transaction is declined) by financial institutions articulated under the Banking Act - stock companies in liquidation or closed down their business more than a year stock companies whose commencement of liquidation was declared under the Company Reorganization Act - companies under M&A process under the Commercial Law, which are supposed to be dissolved in the current business year - other stock companies whose external audit was exempted by the Securities and Futures Commission(SFC) under the Act Article 2


59

COUNTRY: NEW ZEALAND


Companies in New Zealand are not required to file their financial statements with the authorities, unless under s19 of the Financial Reporting Act 1993 (“the FRA”), they are:

A subsidiary of a company or body corporate incorporated overseas; or

A company in which 25 percent or more of the voting shares are held by:

A company or body corporate incorporated overseas; or

A subsidiary of a company or body corporate incorporated overseas; or

A subsidiary of a subsidiary of a company or body corporate incorporated overseas; or

A person not ordinarily resident in New Zealand.

Public quoted companies make their financial statements available and all are collected, analysed and provided to the ORBIS database.


6,000 approximately


See 1 above


See 1 above

5. Where are the accounts filed ? See 1 above


5 months and 20 days

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around 4 months




Public quoted companies – accounts can generally be obtained direct from the company, or hard copies from Worldbox AG.

Foreign companies accounts are available under www.companies.govt.nz


Yes

Data provider for ORBIS Worldbox Business Intelligence


Maximum possible period between company publishing their accounts and the information appearing in the database is presently up to 4 months.



COUNTRY: Norway


Limited companies


Approximately 120,000

3. Which type of companies legally do not have to file any form of accounts

Sole property companies


61

even though they would meet the selection criteria for ORBIS?


Less information is possible, when the company for example is having less activity. All limited companies are obliged to deliver an account every year, even if there has been no activity.

5. Where are the accounts filed ? CreditInforms own Registry


6 months


4-5 months (due to competition advantages/ disadvantages)


Yes


As a paper copy on request from official authorities for approx. NOK 150 (one year), from CreditInform in paper, online or datafile for approx. NOK 150 (three years) (depending on volume)


Yes

Data provider for ORBIS CreditInform


Approx. 2 months

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2 weeks

COUNTRY: Poland


Filing of the accounts:

All companies registered at the National Court Registry (KRS), except for general partnerships that didn’t reach the annual turnover of 800,000 EUR

Publishing of the accounts:

Joint stock companies, investment funds and banks plus others complying with 2 of the following criteria: • average annual employment > 50 • total assets at the end of a financial year > 2.5 mil. EURO • annual net profit > 5 mil. EURO

2. 2. How many companies does that represent ?

All companies registered at the KRS (National Court Registry), except for general partnerships that didn’t reach the annual turnover of 800,000 EUR. As for publishing of the accounts, in total about 7,000 companies.


These companies that don’t have to file their accounts wouldn't qualify for ORBIS anyway because of its high selection criteria.

5. Can companies file less information than the previous years or not file accounts at all in some years? If so, why ?

6.

Some positions of Balance Sheets and other accounts may not have been filed in by companies

5. Where are the accounts filed ? Accounts are filed to the National Court Registry (KRS) and published at "Monitor Polski B" (Judicial and Business Journal)


63


Statements should be confirmed by June 30th, and then filed to the KRS, a second version may be filed to the KRS until September 30th, after the audiitng.


Difficult to verify – delays occur very often from various reasons – accounts may be send back to the company after it’s filed them as the company may not have paid the fee for filing, bureaucracy is also a delay – not enough people working, accounts are laying on shelves for months before they’re put into the right files.


Yes, there are 4 different formats

9. At what conditions are the accounts made available to the public ? - form – price – place

There are two major ways to get the company accounts : 1. Judicial and Business Journal (Monitor Polski B)

2. National Court Registry (KRS)


Generally, the companies take as much time as they can or they don't file the accounts at all as the legal costs of that are very low


InfoCredit


Very difficult to verify, statements are published with 3-12 months delay after filing accounts, it may take even up to 2-3 yrs. - for example we’re still getting 2001 accounts published now !!


Impossible to evaluate.

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COUNTRY: Portugal

1. Which companies have to file accounts ? The Portuguese law compels all the companies to deposit the Balance Sheet. Therefor, about 57.500 Balance Sheets are public information.


These 57,500 balance sheets correspond to a small percentage of the totality of Portuguese companies, if we verify that the totality number of the universe has about 800.000 companies. That means that practically the companies do not deliver financial information.


Individual Entities without businesses


Yes. As a company may be, for instance under a "Companies Recovering Process".


Commercial Registry Office


6 months


unknown


No

9. At what conditions are the accounts made available to the public ? - form - price

Paper 3 EURO (medium price)


65

- place

Commercial Registry Office


No, most companies prefer to pay the fines that are between EUR 49.88 and EUR 498.80 according to the registered capital.

11. What is the data provider for ORBIS Coface MOPE


6 months


2 months

COUNTRY: Romania


Joint stock companies, partnerships limited by shares, limited liability companies, state owned concerns, co-operative companies.


500,000


General partnerships, limited partnerships, public limited companies.


Yes, it is possible that some companies do not file their accounts because the penalties are very little.

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5. Where are the accounts filed ? The accounts are filed at fiscal office and the trade registry office. The one filed at the trade registry office is public.


15 April of each year


2 months


Yes


- Certified copy - $65.00 - at the National Trade Registry Office and at any county trade registry office


Yes


Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Romania


Since the limit of 15 April, the National Trade Registry Office finishes the centralization of all records from any country trade registry office by 15 August.


67


15 days.

COUNTRY: Russian Federation


All juridical persons have to represent their accounts (individual entrepreneurs (manufacturers) and farms are not juridical persons)


Approximately 40 per cent of all active companies represent the accounts.


Are not obliged: individual entrepreneurs (manufacturers) and farms. Banks and other credit institutions file their accounts to the Central Bank of the Russian Federation and its local subdivisions. This information is available only if it was published by the Central Bank or by company (bank) itself. Insurance companies have to represent accounts to the State Statistics Bodies. As practise shows there is no access to this information.


The less scope of information can be presented only in case of changing of the state standards for the accounts that should be represented. Practise shows (not in accordance with the law) that companies can not to file their accounts because of:

• carelessness

• intentional concealment

• termination of activity

• official liquidation

5. Where are the accounts filed ? 1) State Statistics Bodies (State Statistics Committee or its local subdivisions): all juridical persons (excluding individual entrepreneurs, farms and credit organisations (banks)) 2) Central Bank of Russian Federation: credit

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organisations (banks) 3) Federal Commission for Securities and its local subdivisions: only joint stocks. This information can be published only in case if the above-mentioned Commission will publish it itself.


In accordance with the law all companies have to file their annual accounts till the 30th March of the year that follows the financial year.


There is no such kind of information. Practise shows, that a company can file annual accounts with delay, that means breaking of terms.


Standardised by the Finance Ministry of the Russian Federation


Practise shows that in Russia the accounts are not available to the public in a full sense of this expression, excluding the cases when a company represents these data in the public press itself.


Practise shows that the diligence companies try to comply with their legal obligations.

Data provider for ORBIS Creditreform Russia


Accounts become available from the Statistics bodies only by the end of the August - on separate companies, as database - only in October-November.


In 2001 we plan to wide the database with the accounts not only for 1999, but for the separate periods of 2000 - as far as they are published either by companies themselves or by the Federal Commission for Securities, or we will get them during our current activities concerning business reports.


69

COUNTRY: Serbia and Montenegro


Each and every registered and active company, regardless to its legal form (Ltd., Joint Stock company, Public or State company, Cooperative society, Limited partnership, General partnership, Socially owned company) and size have to file accounts.


Nearly 80,000 companies


Even if they would meet the selection criteria for ORBIS, following type of companies legally do not have to file any form of accounts : Sole proprietorship, Workshops and Trading shops.


Companies are not allowed to file less information than the previous years or not file accounts at all, with an exception if the subject company went under bankruptcy proceedings.

5. Where are the accounts filed ? Payment Traffic Service of the National Bank of Serbia and Montenegro


2 months


2 months

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Yes


Accounts are available to the public only if they are published by the company itself. Otherwise the accounts are not available to the public. Legislation referring to this matter is not clear.


Yes


MID Group


7 months. This period is needed for the official authorities to process the data for the whole country (economy). Immediately after processing records are transferred to MID Group database.


5 months

COUNTRY: Singapore


All companies except Exempted Companies & Businesses


80,000


71


As per #1


Exempted Companies who cannot obtain an exemption cert from their auditors. Usually when they are not profitable.

5. Where are the accounts filed ? Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority


6mths without being fined


6-9mths


No


via DP’s www.questnet.sg visit DP’s Bureau Center at International Plaza


Yes

Data provider for ORBIS DP Information Group


-

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-

COUNTRY: Slovak Republic


All companies filled in Business Register


About 100,000 (many companies could be inactive, only registered with no financial statement)


Private Entrepreneurs


Companies can put into BR full FS or shorted FS


Tax office and Business Register


6 months


6 months


73


Yes


Hard copy in BR Obchodny Vestnik (= Official Bulletin)


There is no control


Creditinfo Slovakia, s.r.o.


4-5 weeks


3 weeks. In individual cases we are able to get and process FS in 3-4 days

COUNTRY: Spain


S.A., S.L.


776,000

3. Which type of companies legally do not have to file any form of

cooperatives, association, general/limited

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accounts even though they would meet the selection criteria for ORBIS ?

partnership


Small (medium sized) companies meeting during 2 years 2 of the following criteria : Balance Sheet Profit & Loss Accounts - total assets < 395 <1.580 - turnover < 790 <1.160 - employees < 50 < 250


Registered Commerce of the Province


The company has 3 months to produce them, 3 months more to approve them and 1 month more, after their approval, to file them at the Mercantile Register (total 7 months).


Till 31/07 of the following year


Yes


Paper & images Variable (around 9 EURO) Register


90% do


75


INFORMA


about 3 updates


1 update

COUNTRY: Sweden


Limited companies


Abt. 250.000



No, not normally

5. Where are the accounts filed ? At Bolagsverket ( Swedish Companies Registration Office)

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7 months


Between 5 or 6 months


Yes. According to EU-regulations since 1997



Yes.


UC AB


During high season (June, July, august) it is max 30 days. In low season (the rest of the year) it is 20 days.


High season 18 - 20 days, low season 8 - 10 days


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COUNTRY: Switzerland

1. Which companies have to file accounts ? There are no legal requirements to file their accounts in Switzerland (like in the UK). Public quoted companies make their financial statements available and all are collected, analysed and provided to the ORBIS database.


See 1. above


See 1. Above


See 1. above

5. Where are the accounts filed ? N/A


N/A


N/A




Only public quoted companies – accounts can generally be obtained direct from the company, or hard copies from Worldbox AG.

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N/A

Data provider for ORBIS Worldbox AG


Maximum possible period between company publishing their accounts and the information appearing in the database is 3 months.



COUNTRY:Taiwan


1. TSEC, GRETAI, and EMERGING : all listing companies. Besides, public ( but unlisting )companies, and few no public companies.


2.The total are about 2500 companies.


3.If the companies are listing, it must have file. No exception.


4. If the companies are delisting, the data will be less than previous years.


Taiwan Economic Journal


79


6 months


4 months


Yes, it’s standardised.


-Paper and announcement on newspaper.

-price : unable to estimate

-Taiwan Economic Journal


In general, yes.

Data provider for ORBIS Taiwan Economic Journal


3 months.


1 month.

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COUNTRY: Ukraine


All local companies and trade or representative offices of foreign companies have to file accounts


There are abt. 900.000 companies and trade representative offices registered.


All companies which meet the ORBIS criteria must file accounts.


No company can file less information than determined by the Accounting Law of Ukraine.

5. Where are the accounts filed ? Accounts must be presented to the national statistic department. State companies and organisations present accounts to the responsible Ministry too.


The company have to file the accounts and to present them 3 months after the year ends.


2 months


Yes. The form is determined by the Ministry of Finance.

9. At what conditions are the accounts made available to the public ?

YES


81


Copies price: EUR 2 at the statistic authorities


If the company doesn't present annual accounts to the state institutions, they have to be sanctioned, but the sanctions are very low, so there are lots of such cases.

Data provider for ORBIS Creditreform


The maximum period between a company presents its accounts to the state institutions and the records appearing in the database is 6 months.


The average period between a company present its accounts to the state institutions and the records appearing in the database is 4 months.

Insurance Companies Worldwide


All insurance companies


7,000 on ORBIS


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If so, why?


Annual reports


3 months


6 months


No


Free annual reports


Yes


FITCH RATINGS


3 months


1 month


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Banks Worldwide


All banks


27,000 on ORBIS


-


If so, why?

-


Annual reports


3 months


6 months


No

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Free annual reports


Yes


FITCH RATINGS


3 months


1 month


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2.3 Industry Classification present on ORBIS Bureau van Dijk Electronic Publishing has developed a detailed cross-reference system linking multiple national and international industry classification systems from around the world. This unique cross-referencing system provides BvDEP databases with the most accurate cross-border industry searching and analysis possible.

Each country uses one industrial classification system as its national system for cataloguing the industries of the companies filing accounts with the official registries. All company accounts filed in a given country, therefore, indicate the company’s activities with this national code, whether it is a code unique to that country or a widely used international code.

The national codes relevant for companies on the ORBIS databases are listed in the table below, along with the three international codes (NACE 1.1, US SIC, NAICS) used in the cross-reference system.

Code Description Countries covered Max No. of digits

NACE Rev 1.1

Nomenclature statistique des activités économiques dans la Communauté européenne

23 European countries, Hong Kong & New Zealand

4

US SIC Standard Industrial Classification

International Code (used for banks and insurance companies worldwide) and National Code for: North America, South & Central America, Middle East & Africa

4

NAICS 2002 North American Industry Classification System (2002)

International Code and National Code for USA listed companies

6

UK SIC 2003 Standard Industrial Classification

United Kingdom & Ireland 5

NAF Nomenclature d’Activités Françaises

France & Monaco 4

WZ 2003 Klassifikation der Wirtschaftszweige vom Statistischen Bundesamt aus der Revision von 2003

Germany, Austria & Luxembourg

51

ATECO 2002 Classificazione delle attivita economiche (2002)

Italy 5

BIK Bedrijfsindeling Kamers van Koophandel

Netherlands 6

NACE-BEL Nomenclature générale des Activités économiques en Belgique

Belgium & Luembourg 5

SNI-SE Svensk NäringsgrensIndelning

Sweden 5

TIC Teikoku Industrial Classification

Japan 5

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OKVED National Classification of economic activity

Russian Federation 6

Korean SIC Korean Standard Industry Classification

Republic of Korea 52

Taiwanese SEC

Taiwan Stock Exchange Corporation

Taiwan 42

Indian NIC National Industrial Classification

India 5

Filipino SIC Philippine Standard Industry Classification

Philippines 4

Singaporean SIC

Singapore Standard Industry Classification

Singapore 42

ANZ SIC Australian & New Zealand Standard Industry Classification

Australia 5

- (1) Preceded by 2 letters, regrouping the codes in major sectors.

- (2) Preceded by a letter


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2.4 Filings Edgar Online provides filings from the US SEC going back as far as 1999. New filings are updated weekly.

Access to the Filings is exclusively available to clients subscribe to this module.

Form Type Description

10-12B Registration Statement

10-12B/A Amended Registration Statement

10-12G Securities Registration (section 12(g))

10-12G/A Amended Securities Registration (section 12(g))

10-K Annual Report

10-K/A Amended Annual Report

10-K405 Annual Report (Regulation S-K, item 405)

10-K405/A Amended Annual Report (Regulation S-K, item 405)

10KSB Annual Report (Small Business Issuers)

10-KSB Annual Report (Small Business Issuers)

10KSB/A Annual Report (Small Business Issuers)

10-KSB/A Annual Report (Small Business Issuers)

10KSB40 Annual and Transition Reports

10KSB40/A Annual and Transition Reports

10-KT Annual Transition Report

10-KT/A Annual Transition Report

10KT405 Annual Transition Report

10KT405/A Annual Transition Report

10-Q Quarterly Report

10-Q/A Amended Quarterly Report

10QSB Quarterly Report of Financial Condition

10QSB/A Amended Quarterly Report of Financial Condition

10-QT Quarterly Transition Report

10-QT/A Amended Quarterly Transition Report

10-SB Registration of securities for small business issuers pursuant to section 12(b)

10-SB/A Amended Registration of securities for small business issuers pursuant to section 12(b)

10SB12B Securities Registration (small business, section 12(b)

10SB12B/A Amended Securities Registration (small business, section 12(b))

10SB12G Securities Registration Statement (small business, section 12(g))

10SB12G/A Amended Securities Registration Statement (small business, section 12(g))

20-F Annual and Transition Report (foreign private issuer)

20-F/A Amended Annual and Transition Report (foreign private issuer)

20-FR Securities Registration (foreign issuer 12(b) or 12(g))

20-FR/A Amended Securities Registration (foreign issuer 12(b) or 12(g))

20FR12B Securities Registration (foreign issuer, sec 12(b))

20FR12B/A Amended Securities Registration (foreign issuer, sec 12(b))

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20FR12G Securities Registration (foreign issuer, sec 12(g))

20FR12G/A Amended Securities Registration (foreign issuer, sec 12(g))

40-F Annual Report (foreign private issuer)

40-F/A Amended Annual Report (foreign private issuer)

40-FR Registration of a class of securities of certain Canadian issuers pursuant to Section 12(b) or 12(g) of the 1934 Act

40-FR/A Amended Registration of a class of securities of certain Canadian issuers pursuant to Section 12(b) or 12(g) of the 1934 Act

40FR12B Registration of a class of securities of certain Canadian issuers pursuant to Section 12(b) of the 1934 Act

40FR12B/A Amended Registration of a class of securities of certain Canadian issuers pursuant to Section 12(b) of the 1934 Act

40FR12G Registration of a class of securities of certain Canadian issuers pursuant to Section 12(g) of the 1934 Act

40FR12G/A Amended Registration of a class of securities of certain Canadian issuers pursuant to Section 12(g) of the 1934 Act

F-1 Securities Registration (foreign private issuer)

F-1/A Securities Registration (foreign private issuer)

F-10 Registration statement for securities of certain Canadian issuers under the Securities Act of 1933

F-10/A Amended Registration statement for securities of certain Canadian issuers under the Securities Act of 1933

F-10EF Auto-effective registration statement for securities of certain Canadian issuers under the Securities Act of 1933

F-10EF/A Amended auto-effective registration statement for securities of certain Canadian issuers under the Securities Act of 1933

F-10MEF Registration pursuant to Securities Act Rule 462(b) of up to an additional 20% of securities for an offering that was registered on a Form F-10

F-10POS Post-Effective Amendment to Registration statement for securities of certain Canadian issuers under the Securities Act of 1933

F-1MEF Registration of Additional Securities (up to 20%, foreign issuer)

F-1MEF/A Amended Registration of Additional Securities (up to 20%, foreign issuer)


F-3/A Securities Registration (foreign private issuer)

F-3D Securities Registration (dividends, foreign issuer)

F-3D/A Amended Securities Registration (dividends, foreign issuer)

F-3DPOS Amendment to a previously filed F-3D.



F-4 POS Post-effective amendment to securities registration (foreign private issuer)

F-4/A Amended Securities Registration (foreign private issuer)

F-4EF Auto-effective Registration statement for securities issued by certain foreign private issuers in certain business combination transactions

F-4EF/A Amended Auto-Effective Registration statement for securities issued by certain foreign private issuers in certain business combination transactions


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NT 10-K Notification that Annual Report will be submitted late

NT 10-K/A Amended Notification that Annual Report will be submitted late

NT 10-Q Notification that Quarterly Report will be submitted late

NT 10-Q/A Amended Notification that Quarterly Report will be submitted late

NT 20-F Notification that Form 20-F will be submitted late

NT 20-F/A Amended Notification that Form 20-F will be submitted late

NTN 10K Notification that Annual Report will be submitted late

NTN 10K/A Amended Notification that Annual Report will be submitted late

NTN 10Q Notification that Quarterly Report will be submitted late

NTN 10Q/A Amended Notification that Quarterly Report will be submitted late

NTN 20F Notification that Form 20-F will be submitted late

S-1 Securities Registration Statement

S-1/A Securities Registration Statement

S-11 Securities Registration: Real Estate Company

S-11/A Securities Registration: Real Estate Company

S-11MEF Registration of Additional Securities (up to 20%)


S-3 Securities Registration Statement (simplified form)

S-3/A Securities Registration Statement (simplified form)

S-3D Registration of Securities Pursuant to Dividend

S-3D/A Amended Registration of Securities Pursuant to Dividend

S-3DPOS Post-Effective Amendment to an S-3D filing


S-4 Securities Registration: Business Combination

S-4 POS Post-Effective Amendment to an S-4EF filing

S-4/A Securities Registration: Business Combination

S-4EF Securities Registration: Bank, S&L, or Holding Company

S-4EF/A Post-effective amendment to Securities Registration: Bank, S&L, or Holding Company

S-4MEF Registration pursuant to Securities Act Rule 462(b) of up to an additional 20% of securities for an offering that was registered on a Form S-4

SB-1 Securities Registration: Small Business

SB-1/A Securities Registration: Small Business

SB-1MEF Registration pursuant to additional 20% of securities for an offering that was registered on a Form SB-1.

SB-2 Securities Registration: Small Business

SB-2/A Securities Registration: Small Business

SB-2MEF Registration of Additional Securities (up to 20%)

8-K Unscheduled Material Events

8-K/A Amended Unscheduled Material Events

6-K Report of Foreign Issuer

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6-K/A Amended Report of Foreign Issuer

2.5 Stock Data The Stock Data, collected by Fininfo, is comprised of :

• Security and Price Information

• Current and Annual Stock Data

• Current and Annual Stock Valuation

• Monthly, Weekly and Daily Pricing Series

2.5.1 Security and Price Information The Security and Price Information presented in a company report includes Number of outstanding shares, Stock exchanges, Indexes, Market Prices, Price Trends, Beta values and Equity Price Volatility.

2.5.1.1 Beta Values

The beta value is a measure of market risk that shows the relationship between the volatility of the stock compared to the volatility of a reference index over a given period.

If the beta value is greater than 1, the stock is said to be more volatile than the market. When the beta equals 1, then the stock reacts as the market does. When beta is less than 1, then the stock shows less volatility than the market itself.

On ORBIS, the beta value is calculated for 1 month, 3 month and 1 year periods, with each reference index clearly noted. Fininfo often proposes more than one index which can be interesting for a certain country or specific companies in a country.

The beta is calculated on a weekly basis, and considers the closing date of the week. For the calculations a gliding system is used.

E.g. Say 14/4 is the end of the week; the beta is being calculated over the time period 14/1 - 14/4 for the three months beta. At the end of the following week, the beta is being calculated over the time period 21/1 - 21/4 for the three months beta. For the one month beta the calculation would be made over the time period 14/3 - 14/4 and 21/3 - 21/4. And so on. The same principle counts for the one year beta.

Formula of the beta

Used in the methodology of the analysis of the return and the price of a financial asset, the beta is obtained by the relationship between two statistics:

• The covariance of the returns of the stock and the returns of an index;

• The variance of the returns of the index

The correlation coefficient allows measuring the intensity of the existing correlation between the returns of the stock and the returns of the related index.

The formula used for the calculation of the beta on ORBIS is the classical formula for beta calculation:


91

Cov [Returnstock, Returnindex] ß =

Var [Returnindex]

Remark: Over the calculation period, all dividends paid by the company are searched for. At each date the dividend falls, the first price is searched (FirstPDiv). If there is no rating, the first quote of the first price after the date when the dividend was paid is searched. The series of relations (Dividend / FirstPDiv) over the period are integrated in the calculation of the return of the stock.

2.5.1.2 Equity Price Volatility

The equity price volatility measures the volatility of the stock, not compared to a reference index as the beta value, but compared to the fluctuations of the stock price itself.

On ORBIS the equity price volatility is calculated for 10, 30, 50, 100 and also 360 days. Please note these are working days.

The equity price volatility is calculated as the standard deviation of the logarithm of each individual trading day's equity price movement for last 10, 30, 50, 100 or 360 trading days.

E.g. The 360-day volatility as of a specific date is the unbiased standard deviation of the 359 most recent logarithmic daily returns, multiplied by an "annualisation" factor (which is 260, since there are 260 working days in a calendar year).

The logarithmic daily return is the (natural) log of the division of two chronologically adjacent prices.

The steps involved are:

1. Form the series of market capitalization by multiplying the price by the Number of shares outstanding (NSO).

2. Divide the current observation of the market cap by the prior observation, and take the natural log of the result.

3. Take the standard deviation of the most recent 359 observations from the series of log returns, and multiply this number by the square root of 260 to give our result.

Example

The following is a calculated example of 4-day volatility:

26/01/00 25/01/00 24/01/00 23/01/00 Price 2.59 2.51 2.51 2.66

NSO 2,790,000 2,790,000 2,790,000 2,790,000

Market Cap. 7,226,100 7,002,900 7,002,900 7,421,400

Dividing 1.0319 1.0000 0.9436

Natural Log 0.0314 0.0000 -0.0580

Standard dev. 0.0454

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2.5.2 Current and Annual Stock Data Current Stock Data provides current numbers for Outstanding Shares and Market Capitalization with the latest date of information. Per share figures for the past twelve months are also listed for earnings, cash flow, dividends and book value.

Annual Stock Data lists information such as High and Low Market Prices , Shares Outstanding, and Market Capitalization .

2.5.3 Current and Annual Stock Valuation Current and Annual stock valuation provide P/E ratios, Earnings yield and various other ratios.

The ratios are calculated as follows:

• Price / Earnings ratio is calculated as the Market price divided by EPS (in which EPS is calculated as Net Profit divided by No of outstanding shares).

• Earnings yield ratio is the inverse of the Price / Earnings ratio; it is calculated as EPS divided by the Market Price.

• Price / CF ratio is calculated as the Daily closing price divided by CF per share (in which CF per share is calculated as CF divided by No of outstanding shares).

• Dividend yield is calculated as Dividend per share divided by Daily closing price.

• Dividend payout per share is calculated as Dividend per share divided by EPS.

• Price / Book value ratio is calculated as the Daily closing price divided by Book value per share (in which Book value per share is calculated as Shareholder Funds divided by No of outstanding shares).

Please note the exact figures are needed to obtain the same figures as on ORBIS, if not you will get a slightly different figure due to the missing decimals.

2.5.4 Monthly, Weekly and Daily Pricing Series Monthly and Weekly Pricing Series include High and Low prices , Closing Price , Trading Volume , Average Daily Volume , Number of Days Traded , Shares Outstanding , and Market Capitalization.

Daily Pricing Series present the Daily Closing Prices. For Daily Closing Prices there is a history of two years available in a List and the Report of a company.

If interested in uploading the complete history (i.e. more than two years) of daily stock prices for a certain company this can be done via the Addin function. A new Addin template called "Dailystk.xlt" has been created as an example which can be used. The history could go up till January 2002.


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2.5.5 Stock Data Ratios

Formula for Stock Data Ratios

Industry Bank Insurance

Earnings per share (EPS)

(35904 - Net Income) / No. outstanding shares



Cash Flow per share

(30295 - Cash Flow) / No. outstanding shares

n.a. n.a.

Dividends per share

('13046' - Ord. Dividends) / No. outstanding shares

(46830 - Dividends) / No. outstanding shares

n.a.

Book Value per share

(35902 - Shareh. Funds) / No. outstanding shares



Capex per share (5515 Capex / Asset disp.) / No. outstanding shares

n.a. n.a.

Op. Rev./Turnover per share

(35903 - Op. Rev/Turnover) / No. outstanding shares



Op. Profit per share

(30235 - Operating P/L) / No. outstanding shares

(46640 - 46710) / No. outstanding shares

(235500 - Profit before Tax) / No. outstanding shares

Tangible Book Value per share




LT Liabilities per share

(30075 - Non Current Liab. / No. outstanding shares

n.a. n.a.

Working capital per share

(30110 - Working Capital) / No. outstanding shares

n.a. n.a.

P/E ratio Market price / Earnings per share

Market price / Earnings per share

Market price / Earnings per share

Earnings yield ratio

Earnings per share / Market price



Price/Cash Flow ratio

Market price / Cash Flow per share



Dividend Yield (Dividends per share / Market price) * 100

(Dividends per share / Market price) * 100

(Dividends per share / Market price) * 100

Dividend Payout per share

(Dividends per share / Earnings per share) * 100



Price/Book Value ratio

Market price / Book Value per share



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3 Software overview

3.1 Export System All BvDEP applications have a specialised export system that allows users to export, to a selection of different file formats, lists, company and peer reports, tables, graphs and much more.

In order to export data, you first need to display the data to be exported on the screen and

then click on from the top right hand side of the screen.

In addition, to this export service, we also give users the possibilities to export and send the

exported file to a selection of recipients in one simple and easy step by clicking on from the top right hand side of the screen..

Hereafter is the list modules and features from which data can be exported, along with the available formats to which they can be exported to(1):

Module/feature Available export formats

Excel (.xls)

Word (.doc)

Rich Text Format (.rtf)

ASCII delimited (.asc)

ASCII (.txt)

Lists: - - Reports:

- Company reports: - Peer reports: - Executive reports: - - -

- Sector reports - - - -

- Report graphs: - - - -

Analyses:

- Segmentation tables: - Segmentation graphs: - - -

- Aggregated accounts: - - Distribution analysis: - - Concentration analysis - - Linear Regression : - - Analyses graphs: - - - -

News headlines & articles:

(1): depending on the BvDEP application, you may have more available formats to which you can export to. The list here presents the minimum formats per module to which you can potentially export to.

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3.1.1 Exporting Information

3.1.1.1 Exporting a list of companies

All BvDEP applications allow users to export all or some of the identified entities along with a selection of items in the form of a list.

1. After having displayed a list of companies, selected the items of list to be displayed

with each company and optionally marked the companies of interest, click on .

Note: The options "Marked companies" and "Unmarked companies" are only displayed if you have previously marked companies using the check-boxes from the list or report

Note: Depending on the variables you included in your list, it may be that the requested export is too large. In this case, it is the dialog displayed above that will be shown asking you to refine you selection.

2. Give a unique name for your export in the top most text-box

3. Select the file format to which you wish export the information

4. Select the companies you wish to export. You can choose to export all companies, a range of companies (identified by their occurrence number in the list), all marked or un-marked companies (only available if you previously marked companies in the list).

5. Activate the check-box 'Include search strategy' if you would like to include the different search steps in your export.

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97

6. Click on to confirm your selection and launch the export. The following dialog will be displayed:

Figure 2

7.

8. This dialog allows you to monitor the progress of your export. Once the export has been processed, the following dialog will be displayed allowing you to either save or open the exported file.

Note: if this dialog does not automatically display, your browser may have blocked the download of the exported file. We have placed a link on the following dialog box which allows you to force the download of the file.

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9. For large exports, the processing time might be quite lengthy. In order to not hinder the progression of your work, you can close the dialog shown in figure 2 and continue to work and navigate through the application normally. The export will continue to be processed and you can monitor its progression from the

Profile menu ( ) under exports. When the export is complete, you can download it from that same location For more information click here.

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3.1.1.2 Exporting company reports

All BvDEP applications allow users to export one or more company reports to a selection of different file formats.

1. After having displayed a company report and optionally marked the companies of

interest, click on .

Note: The options "Marked companies" and "Unmarked companies" are only displayed if you have previously marked companies using the check-boxes from the list or report.

Note: If you have included the subsidiary section in your report format, two extra options are displayed as shown on above

2. Give a unique name for your export in the top most text-box

3. Select the file format to which you wish export the information

4. Select the company reports you wish to export. You can choose to export all companies, a range of companies (identified by their occurrence number in the list), all marked or un-marked companies (only available if you previously marked companies). In all cases, you cannot export more the 50 company reports at a time.

5. If you are exporting the subsidiary section of the report choose to either export the subsidiaries as they are currently displayed in the report (first option) or just those included in a previously created filter and up to a certain level of subsidiaries (second option). For more information on the BvDEP's ownership database, click here


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Figure 2

7.



Exports

101



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3.1.1.3 Exporting a Peer Report

All BvDEP applications allow users to export a peer report to a selection of different file formats.

1. After having displayed a peer report , click on .

2. Give a unique name for your export in the top most text-box.

3. Select the file format to which you wish export the information.


Figure 2

5.

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103





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3.1.1.4 Exporting graphs

All BvDEP applications allow users to export graphs in Rich Text Format.

1. After having displayed a graph, click on .

2. The export will immediately be processed. Once the export has been processed, the following dialog will be displayed allowing you to either save or open the exported file.


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3.1.1.5 Exporting a segmentation table or graph

All BvDEP applications allow users to export a segmentation table to a selection of different file formats.

1. After having displayed a segmentation table or a segmentation graph, click on .

Export dialog for segmentation table Export dialog for segmentation graph




Figure 2

5.

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107

3.1.1.6 Other Exports

In addition to being able to export lists, reports, graphs, segmentation tables etc.. you can also export the results of a variety analyses such as peer analyses, aggregation analyses, linear regression analyses etc..

1. After having displayed the results of the analysis you wish to export, click on .




Figure 2

5.

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109

3.1.2 Viewing the progress and downloading exports All exports are immediately executed and processed in "low priority" which means that the processes needed to run the application optimally have precedence over those responsible for generating the export file. In effect, this means that you can continue working and navigating through the application in an optimal manner.

When you launch an export, a dialog is displayed allowing you to monitor the progression of your export. However, because you can close this window and continue working without

interrupting the export, we have included in the profile ( ) under exports, a module allowing you to monitor the progression and download all your exports in one central location.

1. When an export is finished, the status is set to 'Done' and you can download the file by clicking on the export name.

2. You can open the export status window of an in-progress export by clicking on the status bar.

3. All exports will be kept available for you to download for 7 days after the creation day. After 7 days it will automatically be deleted. You can easily delete or cancel an export by clicking on Cancel or Delete.

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3.1.3 Sending information Wherever you can export information, you can also export and send it to a selection of recipients in one easy step. Unlike the export service, you cannot choose the file format to which you wish to export.

1. After having displayed the information you wish to export and send, click on .

2. A default name to the file is automatically given. Change it if needed.

3. Type in some text you would like your email to contain

4. In the 'to' field', type in one or more email addresses. If you type in more than recipient, separate them with a semicolon. Note that although you can theoretically send the file to an infinite number of recipients, this amount is limited by the maximum number of characters the 'to' field can contain, which is 100.

5. Click on to confirm and send the file to the recipients.

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3.2 Analyses Bureau van Dijk Electronic Publishing's unique software allows you to conduct a variety of different analyses on a group of preselected companies.

You may conduct a:

• Segmentation analysis

• Aggregation of accounts

• Distribution analysis

• Concentration analysis

• Linear regression

These analyses can be conducted on both the CD/DVD version and internet version.

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3.2.1 Segmentation The Segmentation analysis can be performed on any number of companies, organizing the companies into a table with two axes. The two axes are defined by the primary and secondary variables that you select from a list of 15 different financial and non-financial items.

Once the table is calculated and displayed you can customise it by modifying the descriptive variable, the years, swapping the axes and calculating the figures in terms of percentages and penetration indices.

Additionally, the analysis can be presented graphically using a pie chart or with a bar chart displaying the breakdown of any variable in the table or displaying the values of the penetration indices.

3.2.1.1 Accessing the segmentation tool

1. Select the list of companies for the segmentation through a search or by loading a company set or search strategy.

2. Click on from the top of your screen. A pull down many will appears from where you should select Segmentation.

3. If you already used this function a list of previously constructed tables will be displayed.

You can either use one of the tables already set-up by clicking on or modify it

by clicking on after having highlighted the table of your choice.

4. To create a new table, click on .

Note: Whether you are creating a new table or modifying a previously created table, you will directed to the same screen.

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3.2.1.2 Creating a new segmentation table

1. The first text field allows you to give a name to your table. By default it will be given the name: Table 1, table 2, ... , Table i, ... Table N.

2. Next you can specify the first variable from the drop down box. Click the drop-down menu and a list of available variable will unfold. Select the one you desire by clicking on it.

3. Select the second variable by clicking on the Specify the second variable drop-down menu and selecting a variable from the unfolded list.

4. Specify the class limits for each variable from the two drop-down menus Specify the class limits. The class limits depend intrinsically on the selected variable.

5. From the Specify the reference year field, you can select the year. All years going back to 1995 are available.

6. Once you have selected your criteria and classes, click to create the segmentation table. The following screen will then appear:

Note: The number in each cell of the table refer to the number of companies inside your

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company set belonging to that class. You can change the descriptive variable by

clicking on .

3.2.1.3 Viewing a Segmentation Table

Change the descriptive variable

By default, the numbers in the table are represent the number of companies included in

each class. Using the button , however, numbers can also be expressed in terms of:

• Number of Employees • Cash flow

• Operating Revenue/Turnover • Shareholders funds

• P/L for period, • Total Assets

• Added Value • Total Assets including estimates

In these cases, the numbers in the table are the aggregation (i.e the sum of) of the variable's value for all the companies in the class. More Info...

Change the reference year

By default, it is the last available year that is used in order to build the segmentation

table. To select another year, click on More info...

Hide NA's

The companies which have a value of n.a. are grouped in a column and line entitled n.a. (non available). Companies with n.a for one or both variables can be excluded by unchecking the option 'Include NAs'.

Calculate percentages and penetration indices

The button allows the user to change the presentation of the table from absolute variables to percents. Using the percentages option, the total of the columns, the total of the rows or the general total can be used as the base for 100%. More info...

Transpose the lines and columns

The button inverts the placement of columns and rows in the table.

Select companies

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Companies from one or multiple cells can be selected. To do this, click on , the table then displays check boxes to the left of each cell. This selection is processed as an additional search step, therefore, it will take you out of the Analysis module and return you to the Search Summary. More info...

Graphs

Three graphs are available to illustrate the Segmentation Table

• The Pie Chart illustrates, line by line, the breakdown of companies according to groups in columns. To illustrate the graph column by column, simply swap the axes before creating the graph.

• The first histogram contains a variation on this presentation.

• The second histogram demonstrates the penetration indices for the values from given lines.

3.2.1.4 Changing the year in a segmentation table

To change the reference year from a segmentation table you created:

1. Click on from the bottom left of your screen. The following screen will appear:

2. Select the required year and click .

3. The segmentation table with the new reference year will then be displayed.

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3.2.1.5 Swapping the lines and columns from a segmentation table

This function allows you to transpose your segmentation table. To do so:

1. Click on from the bottom of your screen.

2. The rows become columns and the columns become the rows as shown in the following tables:

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3.2.1.6 Changing the descriptive variable from a segmentation table

The descriptive variable refers to the number that is contained in each cell of the segmentation table. By default, it is the number of companies from your company set that belong to the class.

To select another descriptive variable from a segmentation table you created:

1. Click on . The following dialogue is available:

l

2. Select the new variable from the list and click .

3. The segmentation table will appear with the new descriptive variable.

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3.2.1.7 Calculating percentages and penetration indices from a segmentation table

This function allows you to calculate the figures in terms of percentage and penetration indices.

The Penetration index simply measures the representation of a class by comparing it with the average of the company set. An index greater than 100 indicates an over representation of the class as compared to the average of the company set. An index smaller than 100 indicates an underrepresentation of the class as compared to the average of the company set.

For example, if 75% of the companies with a profit of more than 50 000 million USD employ more than 1000 people and on average only 50% of all the companies included in the company set employ over 1000 people, the penetration index for companies with more then 50 million USD of profit would be equal to 150 (= [75/50]*100).

1. Click on from the bottom of your screen. The following screen will appear:

2. Six option are offered to you:

• Base = column totals: Selecting this option will calculate the weight (in %) of each entry in terms of the total of the column to which it belongs to. (Conditional frequencies)

Example:

This table informs us for example that :

• 28.75% of the companies included in the company set with a profit of less than 5 million USD employ more than 1 000 people

• 15.65% of the companies included in the company set have less then 200 employees

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• As above, including penetration indices: Selecting this option will retrieve the same figures as above but will include the penetration indices as well.

Example:

This table informs us for example that 69.57% of the companies included in the company set with profits above 50 million USD, employ over 1000 people. For the whole set of companies, the percentage of companies employing more than 1000 people is 36.52% .

So companies whose profit is above 50 million USD, in relative terms, are less inclined have a limited labour force. In other words, the larger the profit the more chance there is to be a large labour force.

• Base = row totals: Selecting this option will calculate the weight (in %) of each entry in terms of the total of the row to which it belongs to. (Conditional frequencies).

Example:

This table informs us for example that:

• 38.10% of companies of the company set that employ over 1000 people have had a profit for the period of less than 5 million USD.

• 20% of all companies included in the set have had a profit of over 50 million USD

• As above, including penetration indices: Selecting this option will retrieve the same figures as above but will include the penetration indices as well.

Example:

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This table informs us for example that 61.11% of companies of the company set that employ less than 200 people have had a profit of less than 5 million USD.

For the whole set of companies, the percentage of companies with a profit of less than 5 million USD is of 48.70%. So companies who employ less than 200 people, are, in relative terms, less inclined to have had large profits. In other words, the larger the labour force, the more chance the company has to have large profits.

• Base = complete total: Selecting this option will calculate the weight (in %) of each entry in terms of the total value of the company set. (Absolute frequencies)

Example

• Penetration indices alone: Selecting this option will calculate and retrieve the penetration indices for each cell.

Example

A Penetration Index greater than 100 indicates an over representation of the class as compared to the average of the company set. An index smaller than 100 indicates an underrepresentation of the class as compared to the average of the company set.

3. Select the option you would like to calculate by clicking on the corresponding radio

button and click .

• Note: The Penetration indices calculated depend intrinsically on the descriptive variable chosen in the segmentation table. In the examples above, the descriptive variable is the number of companies

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3.2.1.8 Using estimates in a segmentation table

This function enables you to calculate the estimates of the number of employees variable when it is not available for certain companies in your set and include it in your segmentation table.

1. Click on from the bottom of your screen. The following screen appears:

2. Two main sections are available:

a. When used as a criterion:

• When creating your segmentation table, if you chose to include the number of employees as a primary or secondary variable, the radio button "in the appropriate class using estimates" will be selected. This will position the company in the appropriate class based on the estimated value.

• If you select the radio button "in the n.a. class" the companies for which the value is n.a. will be positioned in the n.a. class.

b. When used as a descriptive variable:

• After having created your segmentation table, if you chose a the number of employees as the descriptive variable, the radio button "included in the aggregated figures using estimates" will be selected. If you would like to include estimates of the variable for companies for which the figure is non-available in the aggregated figures within the table keep this radio button activated.

• If you select the radio button "excluded from the aggregated figures", the companies for which the value is n.a. will not be taken into account in the aggregated figures included in the table

3. Click to confirm your choices and you will redirected to the segmentation table.

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3.2.1.9 Select companies from a segmentation table

This function allows you to select companies included in a specific cell of your table in order to include it as a search step in the Search Summary screen.

1. Click from the bottom of your screen.

2. Each cell in the segmentation table then includes a check-box.

3. Activate the check-boxe(s) corresponding to the cell(s) in order to select the companies included in the class.

4. Click on to confirm your choice and you will return to the Search Summary window:

3.2.1.10 Viewing a Pie Chart from a segmentation table

This functionality allows you to visualise, in a pie chart, the descriptive variable's breakdown of a single row in terms of the columns included in your segmentation table.

1. Click on from the bottom of your screen.

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2. From the top left of you screen, you can select which row (class) you would like to see descriptive variable broken down in terms of columns. Alternatively, you can select All to visualise the breakdown of the descriptive variable in terms of the columns independently of which row they belong to.

3. You can change the characteristics of the pie chart by clicking on from the bottom of your screen.

4. The other button at the bottom of the screen are defined below:


Swap between the primary and secondary variables


Return to the Segmentation Table

Prints out the graph

Exports the graph to an external document

Sends the graph to selected recipients

Change the segmentation criteria

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3.2.1.11 Visualising a bar chart from a segmentation table

This functionality allows you to visualise, in a bar chart, the descriptive variable's breakdown of a single row in terms of the columns included in your segmentation table.

1. Click on from the bottom of your screen (the first one starting from your left).

2. From the top left of you screen, you can select which row of your table you would like to see descriptive variable broken down in terms of the columns. Alternatively, you can select All to visualise the breakdown of the descriptive variable in terms of the columns independently of which row they belong to.







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3.2.1.12 Viewing the Penetration Indices in a bar chart graph from a Segmentation Table

This functionality allows you to visualise, in a bar chart, the descriptive variable's penetration index of a single row in terms of the columns included in your segmentation table.

1. Click on from the bottom of your screen (the second one to your left).

2. From the top left of you screen, you can select which row of your table you would like to see the descriptive variable's penetration indices per column. Alternatively, you can select All to visualise the descriptive variable's penetration indices per column independently of which row they belong to.




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3.2.1.13 Modifying a previously created segmentation table

Modifying a segmentation table enables you to change the primary and/or secondary variables, the classes, and the year for which the data will be displayed within your table.

1. You can modify a previously created table from two places:

a. While viewing a segmentation table by clicking on from the bottom left of your screen.

b. When viewing the Available table formats screen (after clicking on Other Analyses then Segmentation) by selecting an available format then clicking on

.

2. In both cases the following screen will be displayed:

3. See creating a new segmentation table for an explanation on this dialogue box.

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3.2.2 Aggregation You may aggregate accounts of a group of a maximum of 500 previously selected companies , i.e., sum up, year by year, every line of each company's accounts, and present you with one final virtual company's yearly account statement. In effect, this virtual company is the sum of all the companies present in the group.

From the aggregated account, the following operations are possible:

• Format the aggregated account

• Remove companies

• Change the currency and units

• Change the years

The aggregated virtual company can be pictured in four graphs:

• balance sheet structure graph ( ).

• profit & loss structure graph ( ).

• bar chart evolution chart ( ).

• indices evolution chart ( )

Note: When viewing the aggregated accounts, the number of companies included in the accounts varies year be year due to the fact that not all accounts included in your selected company group have the same availability. So when viewing and comparing the evolution of a variable through time, you need to take in account the fact that there are not the same number of observations and that therefore the results may be flawed.

3.2.2.1 Accessing the Aggregation tool

1. Select the list of companies for the aggregation by executing a search or loading a previously saved company set.

2. Click on

3. A pull-down menu will appear. Click on Aggregation.

4. The aggregated account will then be displayed.

Note: You can view the number of statements included for each filed and year by activating the check-box 'Number of statements' at the bottom of the screen in brackets next to a variable within the account statement is the number of observations for that variable.

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3.2.2.2 Formatting an aggregated account

An account format refers to the sections of information included in the aggregated report. This function allows you to select which sections you would like to display.

1. To access the formatting tool click on from the bottom right-hand side of your screen.

2. By default all sections are selected. To deselect a section from your aggregated account un-check the section you do not need by clicking on the corresponding check-box.

3. When you are finished click on to confirm your choices and view your newly formatted aggregated account.

3.2.2.3 Removing companies from an aggregated account

Removing an entry in your aggregated account enables you to redefine the selection of companies chosen for the aggregation. This may be desirable in cases where some exceptionally "good" or "bad" companies misrepresent the group.

1. From the bottom left hand side of your screen click on . The following screen will appear:

2. By default, all the companies included in the aggregated account are selected.

3. If you would like to include a large amount of companies, un select the check-box next to each company you would like to delete from your aggregated account.

4. If you would like to exclude a large amount of companies click on and then activate the check-boxes corresponding to the companies you would like to include in the aggregated account.

5. Click to confirm you choices or to ignore them. In both cases you will return to the aggregated account statement.

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3.2.2.4 Changing the currency form an aggregated account

All figures in the aggregated account are generally expressed in a default currency that depends on the application. You have the possibility to change both the currency and the unit in which figures are expressed. To do so:

1. From the bottom left of your screen click on .

2. To change the currency, click on the currency drop-down menu and a list of 21 currencies will be available. Select the currency you desire by clicking on it.

3. To change the units, click on the radio button corresponding to the unit you desire. The default unit corresponds to the unit that is sent by the IP which can be thousands, millions or billions.

4. In some BvDEP applications (eg Amadeus) you may select the exchange rate to use for converting one currency in another. You have the choice between the official rate or your own rate. You may define your own exchange rate from the profile menu.


3.2.2.5 Changing the years from an aggregated account

When aggregating accounts, you will by default calculate the aggregated accounts for all periods till the last available accounting year. Nevertheless, if you would like to delete or re-include previously deleted years, you can do so by:

1. Clicking on from the bottom of your screen. The following screen will appear:

2. If this is the first time you access this screen, all available years will be in the Years selected window. To delete a year, select a year by clicking on it and click on . The deleted year will be displayed in the Available years window.

3. To re-include a deleted year, click on the year you wish to re-include from the Available years window and click on . The selected year will then appear in the Years selected window.


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3.2.2.6 Viewing the Structure of the Balance Sheet from an aggregated account

This option allows you to illustrate the yearly structure of the aggregated group's balance sheet by breaking it down in terms of:

• On one hand, the group's assets into fixed Assets and Current Assets.

• On the other hand, the group's liabilities into Shareholders funds, non current liabilities and current liabilities.

1. To access the Balance sheet graph, click on from the bottom of your screen. The following screen will appear:

2. By default, the structure of the group's balance sheet corresponding to the last selected year is displayed; to change the year click on the Select a year drop down box and click on the year for the graphical representation.

Note: In some applications, such as ORBIS, this option is not available because the companies included in the analysis do not share the same template

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3.2.2.7 Viewing the Structure of the Profit & Loss account from an aggregated account

This option allows you to illustrate the yearly structure of the aggregated group's Profit and Loss account by breaking it down in terms of:

• The group's expenses

• The group's income.

1. To access the P&L account graph, click on from the bottom of your screen.

2. By default, the structure of the group's P&L account corresponding to the last selected year will be displayed; to change the year click on the Select a year drop down box and click on the year for the graphical representation.

Note: In some applications, such as ORBIS, this option is not available because the companies included in the analysis do not share the same template

3.2.2.8 Viewing the Past Evolution of a Variable

This option allows you to visualise, in a bar chart format, the past evolution of a variable

1. To access this graph click on from the bottom right of the aggregation screen.

2. By default, the evolution of the group's Operating revenue/Turnover is depicted

3. To change the variable represented in the graph, select a section by clicking on it once and then select a variable by clicking on it.

4. The page will refresh showing the graph of the variable you desire.

3.2.2.9 Viewing the Evolution of Key Variables in indices from an aggregated account

This option allows you to select visualise, in a line chart format, the evolution ok key variables expressed in indices.

1. To access the graph click on from the bottom right of your screen.

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2. To add a variable represented in the graph:

• select a section by clicking on it once

• click on a variable and select it by clicking on .

3. To remove a variable represented in the graph:

4. To remove all variables, click on

5. To change the base year click on the "base year" drop-down menu and click on the year you would like your indices to based on.

6. To go back to the aggregated account click on

2. To remove all variables, click on .

3. To change the base year click on the "base year" drop-down menu and click on the year you would like your indices to based on.

4. To go back to the aggregated account click on .

• click on a variable in the selected variables window.

• click on .

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3.2.3 Distribution

3.2.3.1 Accessing the Distribution Module

This module presents the statistical distribution of any single variable (financial data or ratio) for a group of selected companies selected.

To access the distribution tool:

1. Select a list of companies for the distribution analysis through a search or by loading a company set or search strategy.

2. Click on .

3. A pull-down menu will appear.

4. Click on Distribution and the following dialogue will be displayed:

3.2.3.2 Creating & viewing a distribution analysis

Upon accessing the distribution module, you are presented with the following dialogue:

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Creating

1. From the pull-down menu, select the section in which you would like to select a variable from (Profile, Balance Sheet, P&L Account, Ratios or User Defined Variable).

2. From the two other menus select the variable and then the year by clicking on them.

3. Click on to confirm your choices. The distribution table is calculated and displayed.

Viewing

1. The distribution table itself includes the following columns:

• All the companies within the company set for which the selected variable is available for the selected year.

• The quartile of the distribution of the selected variable in which each of these companies belong.

• The decile of the distribution of the selected variable in which each of these companies belong.

• The rank of the company in terms of the selected variable

• The value of the selected variable

2. It can be sorted in ascending or descending order according to the companies' names or value of the variable by either:

• Clicking on the column header

• Using the two radio buttons at the bottom of the screen (you need to click on the column header if you want to change the order)

3. Underneath a second table includes the following information:

• The selected variable's average, median and standard deviation within the group of companies

• The cumulative value of the selected variable within each of the quartiles

• The cumulative value of the selected variable within each of the deciles.

4. The buttons at the bottom of the screen are defined below:

Delete or re-include companies from the analysis

Change the currency in which the variable is expressed

View the distribution graphically in the quartiles

Change the variable and/or year on which the distribution is calculated

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3.2.3.3 Removing companies from a distribution analysis

Removing companies from your analysis enables you to redefine the selection of companies chosen for your distribution analysis. This may be desirable in cases where some exceptionally "good" or "bad" companies misrepresent the group, and consequently skew the statistical calculations.

1. Click on from the bottom left of your screen. The following dialogue appears:

2. By default, all the companies included in the distribution analysis are selected.

3. If you would like to include a large amount of companies, click on next to the companies you would like to delete from your aggregated account in order to un-mark them.

4. If would like to exclude a large amount of companies click on and then check the boxes corresponding to the companies you would like to include in the analysis.

5. Click to confirm you choices and you will return to the distribution tables.

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3.2.3.4 Changing the currency from a distribution analysis

All figures in a distribution analysis are generally expressed in a default currency that depends on the application. You have the possibility to change both the currency and the unit in which figures are expressed. To do so:

1. From the bottom left of the screen click on .

2. Expand the list of currencies from the drop-down and select one of the available currencies

3. To change the units, click on the radio button corresponding to the unit you desire. The default unit corresponds to the unit that is sent to us by the IP which is generally thousands.


5. Click to confirm you choices or to ignore them. In both cases you will return to the distribution analysis screen.

3.2.3.5 Illustrating the distribution of a group of companies in a quartile diagram

This option allows you to view the distribution of a variable within the group of selected companies and position a company within the distribution.

1. To access the graph click on from the bottom of your screen. The following screen will appear:

2. A quartile diagram of the distribution of your selected variable along with a dashed red line representing the position of the highlighted in the upper window within the distribution is displayed.

3. The first and last deciles (1 and 10) can be excluded from the diagram by clicking on the Include/Exclude check-box to the left of the graph.

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3.2.3.6 Modifying the variable/year from a distribution analysis

To change the variable and/or year from the distribution analysis:

1. Click on from the bottom left of your screen. The following screen will be shown:

2. From the pull-down menu, select the section in which you would like to select a variable from (ex: Profile).

3. From the two other menus select the variable and then the year by clicking on them (ex: Profit Margin for 2001).

4. Click on to confirm your choices or to ignore them. In both cases you will return to the distribution table of the variable you selected.

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3.2.4 Concentration

3.2.4.1 Accessing the Concentration Analysis

The concentration analysis enables you to determine the share or weight of each company included in the group of identified companies for any financial variable.

To access the concentration analysis:

1. Select a list of companies for the concentration analysis through a search or by loading a company set or search strategy.

2. Click on .

3. A pull-down menu appears.

4. Click on Concentration and the following screen will be displayed:

3.2.4.2 Creating and Viewing Concentration Analysis

Upon accessing the concentration module, you will be presented with the following dialogue:

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Creating

1. From the pull-down menu, select the section in which you would like to select a variable from (Profile, Balance Sheet, P&L Account, Ratios or User Defined Variable).

2. From the two other menus select the variable and then the year by clicking on them

3. Click on to confirm your choices. The concentration table is calculated and displayed.

Viewing

1. The concentration table itself includes the following columns:

• All the companies within the company set for which the selected variable is available for the selected year.

• The value of the selected variable.

• The cumulative value of the selected variable, i.e. the sum of all the values of the

variable till that point. If is the value of the variable you selected for the nth company in your group, the value of the cumulative variable corresponding to

that observation ( ) is given by the following expression:

• The share or concentration of the company in terms of the selected variable inside the group of companies expressed in %. It is the value of the variable for a company divided by the sum of the values of the variable for the whole group. From the equation above, for a company i, its concentration value is given by the following expression

• the cumulative concentration of the variable; i.e., the sum of all the concentration till that point. For a company n, this variable (C) is given by the following expression:

2. The data is sorted according the selected variable in a descending way. This cannot be changed.

3. Only positive values of the variable are taken into account for this analysis. If the variable can take negative values you can chose to execute the concentration analysis on negative values only by clicking on the appropriate radio button at the bottom of your screen.

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Represent the analysis in a Pie Chart

Represent the analysis in a Lorenz Curve

Change the variable and/or year on which the concentration is calculated

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3.2.4.3 Removing companies from a concentration analysis

Removing companies from your analysis enables you to redefine the selection of companies chosen for your concentration analysis. This may be desirable in cases where some exceptionally "good" or "bad" companies misrepresent the group, and consequently skew the statistical calculations.


2. By default, all the companies included in the analysis are selected.

3. If you would like to include a large amount of companies, click on next to the companies you would like to delete from your analysis in order to un-mark them.

4. If would like to exclude a large amount of companies click on and then check the boxes corresponding to the companies you would like to include in the aggregated account.

5. Click to confirm you choices and you will return to the concentration analysis table.

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3.2.4.4 Changing the currency from a concentration analysis

All figures in the aggregated account are generally expressed in a default currency that depends on the application. You have the possibility to change both the currency and the unit in which figures are expressed. To do so:

1. From the bottom left of your screen click on .


3. To change the units, click on the radio button corresponding to the unit you desire. The default unit corresponds to the unit that is sent to us by the IP which is generally thousands.


5. Click to confirm you choices or to ignore them. In both cases you will return to the concentration analysis screen.

3.2.4.5 Modifying the variable/year from a concentration analysis

To change the variable and/or year from the concentration analysis:


2. From the pull-down menu, select the section in which you would like to select a variable from.

3. From the two other menus select the variable and then the year by clicking on them.

4. Click on to confirm your choices or to ignore them. In both cases you will return to the concentration table of the variable you selected.

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3.2.4.6 Visualising a concentration analysis in a Pie Chart

This option allows you to visualise your concentration analysis in a pie chart format.

1. Click on to access the graph.

2. By default, all the companies in the group will be included in the calculation of the analysis, i.e. the 360° circle represents the sum of all the companies included in the group. Each segment represents the share the company in terms of the variable you selected.

3. If you click on another company in the list of companies from the left hand side of your screen, the pie chart will refresh displaying a chart not based on the sum of all the companies included in the group but based on the sum of all the companies who have a share that is smaller or equal to the company you selected (at the top of the chart you will see "100%= xxxx th GBP").

4. You may also change the presentation of the chart by defining the number of slices you would like to see presented, the tilt and the angle of the chart from the three drop-down menus on the left of your screen.

3.2.4.7 Visualising a concentration analysis from the Lorenz Curve

The Lorenz Curve illustrates the concentration and distribution of an additive variable within the group of companies and positions a selected company on the curve (represented with a blue segment in bold on the Lorenz curve itself).

• Note: If you previously selected a non-additive variable this graph will not be displayed

1. To access and view the Lorenz curve click on from the bottom of your screen.

2. The companies present in the group of companies are positioned on the X-axis. The order in which the companies are plotted is determined by their position in the distribution of the variable that is selected. In the example, the group is composed of 75 companies so the first 1.33% of the axe represents the company with highest turnover. The following 1.33% of the axis represents the company with the second highest turnover figure of the group and so on.

3. On the Y-axis is represented the actual value of the variable in percentage of the total of the group of companies.

4. The dashed line represents a situation of perfect equality in terms of distribution of the variable across the group of companies. The more the Lorenz curve deviates from this line the more the distribution of the variable is unequal. In this example you can see the company with the largest turnover (BP PLC) holds 20% of the total turnover of the group and that around 60% of the groups turnover is concentrated in the 20% largest companies in terms of turnover.

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3.2.5 Linear Regression Linear regression is a classical statistical technique that is used to determine the relationship between two random variables by plotting, in a two dimensional graph, all the observations and constructing a vertical line that best fits the data.

A good way to understand how useful this technique is, is to take an example.

Lets say that the variable X measures the Turnover and that variable Y measures number of employees of a group of companies. Intuitively, one might logically assume that these two variable should be correlated positively, i.e., the larger the turnover the more employees one company will have.

This technique not only allows you to verify this assumption but also allows you to measure the correlation between the variables. .

Formally, the linear regression postulates that:

where

• e: is said to be the "residual" and is randomly distributed with mean zero.

• Y: is said to be the endogenous or dependent variable

• X: is said to be the exogenous or independent variable

• a and b: are the two parameters that the model estimates by fitting a line that best fits the data

With a company set, you can estimate these two parameters by using the Least Square Estimation (LSE) method which simply minimises the sum of the squared residuals. The solution to the problem gives you a unique answer for the values of a and b.

3.2.5.1 Accessing the Linear Regression Tool

1. Select a list of companies for the Linear Regression analysis through a search or by loading a company set or search strategy.

2. Click on .

3. A pull-down menu will appear.

4. Click on Linear Regression and the following screen will be displayed:

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3.2.5.2 Creating and Viewing a Linear Regression Analysis

Creating

1. From the pull-down menu, select the section in which you would like to select a variable from ((Profile, Balance Sheet, P&L Account, Ratios or User Defined Variable)).

2. From the upper right menu, select the year for each variable you will select.

3. Select an available variable and click on the first to define it as the dependent variable.

4. Select another variable and click on the second to define it as the dependent variable.

• Note:: You do not need to choose the same year for both variables. To select different years, click on another year before selecting the dependent independent variable. This can be useful because sometimes a variable has more impact on another variable in the future than in the present.

5. Click on to confirm your choices. The regression table is the displayed.

Viewing

1. At the top of the table are displayed estimated equation (Y = aX +b) and the correlation coefficient . The correlation coefficient is always comprised between -1 and 1. A value of zero means the that the two variable are statistically uncorrelated. A value of -1 or 1 means that the two variables are perfectly correlated.

2. The distribution table itself includes the following columns:

• All the companies within the company set for which the two selected variable is available for the selected year.

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• The values of the independent variable.

• The observed values (real values) of the dependent variable

• The value of the dependent variable calculated by the equation (fitted value). The difference between the calculated and real value is the error. The sum of the all the errors are always equal to zero.

3. The average, median and standard deviation of both variables are displayed at the bottom of the table.

4. The list of companies are by default sorted alphabetically according to the company name. You can sort the results according to any of the other columns by clicking on the header of the column.




View the linear regression graphically in a scatter box.

Change the variable and/or year on which the distribution is calculated

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3.2.5.3 Removing a company from a Linear Regression

Removing companies from your analysis enables you to redefine the selection of companies chosen for your linear regression. This may be desirable in cases where extreme values misrepresent the group, and consequently skew the statistical calculations.


2. By default, all the companies included in the analysis are selected.

3. If you would like to include a large amount of companies, click on next to the companies you would like to delete from your analysis in order to un-mark them.

4. If would like to exclude a large amount of companies click on and then check the boxes corresponding to the companies you would like to include in the aggregated account.

5. Click to confirm you choices or to ignore them. In both cases you will return to the screen you were previously working from.

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3.2.5.4 Changing the currency from a Linear Regression

All figures are expressed in a default unit and currency. These default settings depend in the BvDEP application you are using. However, you have the possibility to change both the currency and the unit in which figures are expressed. To do so:

1. From the bottom left of your screen click on . The following screen will appear:


3. To change the units, click on the radio button corresponding to the unit you desire. The default unit corresponds to the unit that is sent to us by the IPs which can be thousands, millions or billions.


5. Click to confirm you choices or to ignore them. In both cases you will return to the regression table

3.2.5.5 Modifying the variables/years from a Linear Regression

To change the variable and/or year from a linear regression


2. From the pull-down menu, select the section in which you would like to select a variable from.

3. From the upper right menu, select the year for each variable you will select.

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4. Select an available variable and click on the first to define it as the dependent variable.

5. Select another variable and click to define is as the dependent variable.

o Note: You do not need to choose the same year for both variables. To select different years, click on another year before selecting the dependent independent variable. This can be useful because sometimes a variable has more impact on another variable in the future than in the present.

6. Click on to confirm your choices and you will redirected to the linear regression result screen.

3.2.5.6 Viewing a Linear Regression graphically

This functionality allows you to view a graphical representation of the linear regression in a scatter box with:

• On the Y axis the dependent variable,

• On the X axis the independent variable,

• An array of yellow squares representing each observation

• The regression line (in red).

1. To access the linear regression graph, click on from the bottom of your screen.

2. Click on a company name in the list to the left to highlight its position in the graph. The selected company will be represented by a blue square.

3. If you click on a yellow square, the company name in the list will be highlighted in blue.

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3.3 Working with the BvDEP Alert System BvDEP financial and marketing company information web applications have a built-in alert system allowing you to stay informed on software or data updates via an email notification.

Alerts can be applied to three types of entities:

1. Search strategies

A search strategy is a series of search steps linked together with Boolean operators [AND, OR, AND NOT]. When saving a search strategy, the number of companies included in your results may vary through time as the database gets updated. On the other hand, when saving a company set, the number of companies remains constant through time.

2. Company sets

A company set is a static array of companies that are saved using a unique identifier. A company set is said to be static because the number of companies included in a company set remains constant through time.

3. Specific companies

A specific company refers to a single company record in the database.

Hereafter are the different types of alerts that are available:

1. News headline alerts

News headline alerts can be applied to any type of entity. This type of alert allows you to be notified when a new article from the BvDEP news database relevant to a specific company has been added. In effect, you will receive the news headline by email.

Notes: • This type of alerts is only available in BvDEP applications that have the BvDEP

news module integrated. • Users that have access to the BvDEP news service can further view the full news

article from the email that is sent. For more information on how to subscribe to the BvDEP news service, please contact your local BvDEP account manager

2. Deal headline alerts

Deal alerts are available for all types of entities. This type of alert allows you to be notified when a company is involved in a deal, whether it be as bidder, target or vendor.

Notes: • Records on new or updated deals on which the alerts are based are sourced from

the BvDEP M&A database ZEPHYR. • This type of alert is only available on applications in which ZEPHYR is integrated.

3. Updated company alerts

Updated company alerts are available for all types of entities. This type of alert allows you to be notified when some information on a company has been updated.

For example, the updated information on which you can be notified are a change in a company's account information, ID data, managers & directors ownership data etc.

Note: The nature and amount of updated information on which you can notified depends on the application from which you are working from.

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4. Newly included companies alerts

The newly included companies alert can only be applied to saved search strategies. This type of alert allows you to be notified when a new company complies with the saved search strategy.

5. Product update alerts

The product update alert is a global alert and is not applied to a specific entity: it is applied to the product as a whole. This type of alert allows you to be notified when the software is updated and/or the database is updated.

6. Global Reports alerts

Global Reports alerts can be applied to any type of entity. This type of alert allows you to be notified when a new document in the online Reports Library from Global reports on a specific company is available.

Note: This type of alert is only available on applications that have the Global Reports module integrated. For more information on how to subscribe to the Scanned report service, please contact your local BvDEP account manager

You can manage and configure your alerts by either:

• Clicking on from the upper left hand side of any screen you are viewing.

• Accessing the Profile module ( ) and clicking on "Alert System".

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3.3.1 Including/modifying multiple companies in the Alert System BvDEP web application allow you to easily and quickly include an array of companies in the built-in alert system.

Note: To include a file in the alert system, this file cannot contain more then 5000 companies

There are several places within the application from where you can execute this operation:

3.3.1.1 Save a search strategy screen

The Save a search strategy screen is available from the Search summary screen by clicking on the 'Save a search' button.

1. To include your current search strategy in the Alert System, activate the check-box 'Include this new search strategy in the Alert System', give the file a name and click on the 'Save' button

2. You can include a previously saved search strategy by clicking on the name of the previously saved strategy from the available list and clicking on the 'Include' button (which becomes active).

Note: If the previously saved strategy is already included in the Alert System the 'Include' button remains inactive and the 'Remove' and 'Modify' buttons are activated allowing you to remove the file from the system or modify the alert criteria.

See 'Including/modifying a search strategy in the Alert System' for more details

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3.3.1.2 Save a file of companies screen

The Save a file screen is available from the Search summary screen by click on the 'Save a file' button or from the List of result screen by clicking on the 'Save' button.

1. To include the companies currently composing your results in the Alert System, activate the check-box 'Include this new file in the Alert System'', give the file a name and click on the 'Save' button

2. You can include a previously saved company set by clicking on the name of the previously saved file from the available list and clicking on the 'Include' button (which becomes active).

Note: If the previously saved file is already included in the Alert System the 'Include' button remains inactive and the 'Remove' and 'Modify' buttons are activated allowing you to remove the file from the system or modify the alert criteria.

See 'Including/modifying a company set in the Alert System' for more details

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3.3.1.3 Load a search strategy screen

The Load a search strategy screen is available from the Search Module by clicking on the 'Load a search' link from at the bottom of the list of search criteria.

1. Click on the name of the previously saved strategy from the available list

2. Click on the 'Include' button (which becomes active).

Note: If the previously saved strategy is already included in the Alert System the 'Include' button remains inactive and the 'Remove' and 'Modify' buttons are activated allowing you to remove the file from the system or modify the alert criteria.

See 'Including/modifying a search strategy in the Alert System' for more details

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3.3.1.4 Load a file of companies screen

The Load a company file screen is available from the Search Module by clicking on the 'Load a company file' link from at the bottom of the list of search criteria.

1. Click on the name of the previously saved company set from the available list

2. Click on the 'Include' button.

Note: If the previously saved file is already included in the Alert System the 'Include' button remains inactive and the 'Remove' and 'Modify' buttons are activated allowing you to remove the file from the system or modify the alert criteria.

See 'Including/modifying a company set in the Alert System' for more details

3.3.1.5 List of results screen

1. After having executed a search, go to the list of results screen by clicking on the List tab

2. Click on the Alert button from the bottom right hand side of the screen

See Including a company set in the Alert System from the list of results for more details

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3.3.1.6 Alert module or Profile module

The following screen is accessible from 2 locations:

• By clicking on

• the Profile module ( ) and clicking on "Alert System".

This screen presents the list of previously saved files. If a file has 'yes' indicated in the Active alert column, this means that the file is already included in the alert system. If 'no' is indicated under this same column, it mean that the file is not currently included in the alert system.

Click on 'no' to include the previously saved file in the alert system.

Notes: • Clicking on a yes link allows you to redefine the alerts associated to the file • For more information on the screen, please refer to 'Managing alerts on previously

saved files'

See 'Including/modifying a search strategy in the Alert System' or 'Including/modifying a company set in the Alert System' for more details.

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3.3.2 Including a company set in the Alert System from the list of results In order to add a list of companies to the built-in Alert System and specify the alert criteria,

click on from the bottom right of the screen when viewing a list of results.

Note: if there are more than 5000 companies in your list of results, you cannot apply alerts to the file.

3.3.2.1 File name

To include the file in the Alert System, the file must first be saved. Enter a name for the saved file in 'File name' edit box.

Tip: If you already saved the company set, typing in another name will duplicate the company set. To not duplicate the file click on the 'Browse' button and select the name of the previously saved file from the 'Existing files' pop-up screen and click on the 'OK' button.

3.3.2.2 Deals involving the company as:

The options under this heading allow you to generate alerts when at least one of the companies included in the file is involved in a Mergers & Acquisition deal as a:

Bidder/acquiror

Select this option to be notified when a company is involved in a bid for another company

Example: if company A buys 10% of company B from company C, company A is buying 10% of the stakes of company B from company C. Company A is referred to as the Bidder of company B in that deal (even though C may still controls B)

Target

Select this option to be notified when a company is subject of a takeover.

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Example: if company A buys 10% of company B from company C, company A is buying 10% of company B's stakes from company C. Company B is therefore referred to as the Target of the deal.

Vendor

Select this option to be notified when a company is selling its stakes held in another company.

Example: if company A buys 10% of company B from company C, company C is selling 10% of its shares held in company B to company A. Company C is therefore referred to as the Vendor of the deal.

When you select an option the "Include Share buy backs" option becomes active. To include a deals concerning share buy backs, activate the check-box.

Tip: A share buy back deal occurs when a company decides to buy back its own shares in order:

• to reduce the volume of its securities on the market (and hence, artificially increase its price);

• to eliminate any attempt from another shareholder to gain control of the company;

• to redistribute some equity to its employees; • or to enhance financial operations or company growth.

Companies that are involved in this type of share buy back traditionally do it little by little, each buy back being a new deal and hence, you will receive a large number of alerts.

3.3.2.3 News

Activate the check-box in order to receive a notification when a new news article concerning at least one of the companies included in the file has been added to the BvDEP news database.

3.3.2.4 Companies with updated

The options under this heading allow you to receive a notification when the data included in a section of at least one of the companies selected by the search strategy report is updated

ID Data

Select this option to be notified when a company is subject to change in one of its identification number (BvD ID number, National identification number, etc.).

Tip: Users who extensively use BvD ID numbers should activate this option to always be informed when a company's BvD ID number changes.

Accounts

Select this option to be notified when new accounting data is available for a company (i.e. when the database is updated with more recent accounts).

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Managers & Directors

Select this option to be notified when some information relevant one of the companies' managers or directors is updated on the database.

Ownership information

Alerts on updated ownership data encompass 4 different options:

BvDEP Indep. ind / GUO

Activate this option to be notified when a company:

• loses or gains some degree of independence measured by the BvDEP independence indicator. Hereafter is a matrix that summarises when a company gains (+) or loses (-) independence according to a variation in its independence indicator:

New independence indicator of subject company

Previous independence indicator of subject company

A U B C D

A (-) (-) (-) (-) U (+) (-) (-) (-) B (+) (+) (-) (-) C (+) (+) (+) (-) D (+) (+) (+) (+)

Note: Companies for which the independence indicator is unknown or becomes unknown are not considered for this alert

• changes Global Ultimate Owner (G.O.U) according to the currently specified definition.

• changes Immediate Parent

Shareholder owning more than 50%

Activate this option to be notified when at least one of the companies' first-level shareholder (with over 50% in the subject company) change name, percentage of ownership or date of latest information. You will also receive an alert if a new shareholder appears at the first level with 50% of ownership or more or if one such previously existing shareholder disappears.

Note: This alert is only relevant to 'pure' shareholders and does not consider Global or Domestic Ultimate Owners

List of ultimately owned subsidiaries

Activate this option to be notified:

• when one of the companies' ultimately owned subsidiary disappears or a new one appears

• if a subject company is a GOU, when it isn't a GOU anymore

• if a subject is not a GOU, when it becomes a GOU

Subsidiaries owned by more than 50%

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Activate this option to be notified when the there is a variation in the level of ownership of a subject in one of its subsidiaries owned by more than 50%.

Note: the data on which this alert is based on comes from the BvDEP Ownership database

3.3.2.5 New document available in the online Reports Library from Global Reports

Activate the check-box to receive an email notification when a new image is available from the online scanned report library from Global Reports.

3.3.2.6 Finishing off

When you are finished specifying the alert types, you may either:

• Click on the 'DONE' button to confirm your selection and return to the list of results.

• Click on the 'Configuration' button to change the email notification format, frequency and/or list of recipients. .

• Click on the Cancel button to ignore your selection and return to the list of results

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3.3.3 Including/modifying a search strategy in the Alert System Upon including a new search strategy in the Alert System or modifying the settings of a search strategy already included in the Alert system,

The following screen is displayed

Notes: if you are modifying the alerts of an already included search strategy, • the alerts that were previously applied to the file are selected. • An extra button 'Uncheck all' is available allowing you to remove all the

previously selected alerts


The options under this heading allow you to generate alerts when at least one of the companies selected by the search strategy is involved in a Mergers & Acquisition deal as a:

Bidder/acquiror



Target



Vendor


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3.3.3.2 News

Activate the check-box in order to receive a notification when a new news article concerning at least one of the companies selected by the search strategy the company has been added to the BvDEP news database.

3.3.3.3 Newly included companies

Activate this check-box to be notified when a new company complies with your search strategy. A new company may comply with your search strategy when the database is updated because either it is a company that previously did not exist on the database or the update on the company's data now makes the company comply with your search strategy.



ID Data


Tip: Users who extensively use BvD ID numbers should activate this option to always be informed when a company's BvD ID number changes.

Accounts


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A U B C D

A (-) (-) (-) (-) U (+) (-) (-) (-) B (+) (+) (-) (-) C (+) (+) (+) (-) D (+) (+) (+) (+)






Note: • This alert is only relevant to 'pure' shareholders and does not consider Global

or Domestic Ultimate Owners





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• Click on the 'DONE' button to confirm your selection and return to the screen you were previously working from.


• Click on the 'Cancel' button to ignore your selection and return to the screen you were previously working from.

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3.3.4 Including/modifying a company set in the Alert System Upon including a new company set in the Alert System or modifying the settings of a search strategy already included in the Alert system,

The following screen is displayed

Notes: if you are modifying the alerts of an already included company set, • the alerts that were previously applied to the file are selected. • An extra button 'Uncheck all' is available allowing you to remove all the

previously selected alerts


The options under this heading allow you to generate alerts when at least one of the companies included in the file is involved in a Mergers & Acquisition deal as a:

Bidder/acquiror



Target



Vendor


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3.3.4.2 News

Activate the check-box in order to receive a notification when a new news article concerning at least one of the companies included in the file has been added to the BvDEP news database.



ID Data


Tip: • Users who extensively use BvD ID numbers should activate this option to always

be informed when a company's BvD ID number changes.

Accounts





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A U B C D

A (-) (-) (-) (-) U (+) (-) (-) (-) B (+) (+) (-) (-) C (+) (+) (+) (-) D (+) (+) (+) (+)















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• Click on the 'DONE' button to confirm your selection and return to the screen you were previously working from.


• Click on the 'Cancel' button to ignore your selection and return to the screen you were previously working from.

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3.3.5 Including a single company in the Alert System In order to add a single company to the built-in Alert System and specify the alert criteria,

click on from the bottom right of the screen when viewing a company report.

The following screen is displayed:


The options under this heading allow you to generate alerts when the company is involved in a Mergers & Acquisition deal as a:

Bidder/acquiror

Select this option to be notified when the company is involved in a bid for another company


Target

Select this option to be notified when the company is subject of a takeover.


Vendor

Select this option to be notified when the company is selling its stakes held in another company.


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3.3.5.2 News

Activate the check-box in order to receive a notification when a new news article concerning the company has been added to the BvDEP news database.

3.3.5.3 Updating of

The options under this heading allow you to receive a notification when the data included in a section of its report is updated

ID Data

Select this option to be notified when the company is subject to change in one of its identification number (BvD ID number, National identification number, etc.).

Tip: • Users who extensively use BvD ID numbers should activate this option to always

be informed when a company's BvD ID number changes.

Accounts

Select this option to be notified when new accounting data is available for the company (i.e. when the database is updated with more recent accounts).


Select this option to be notified when some information relevant one of the company's managers or directors is updated on the database.




Activate this option to be notified when the company:

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A U B C D

A (-) (-) (-) (-) U (+) (-) (-) (-) B (+) (+) (-) (-) C (+) (+) (+) (-) D (+) (+) (+) (+)





Activate this option to be notified when one of the company's first-level shareholder (with over 50% in the subject company) changes name, percentage of ownership or date of latest information. You will also receive an alert if a new shareholder appears at the first level with 50% of ownership or more or if one such previously existing shareholder disappears.





• when one of the company's ultimately owned subsidiary disappears or a new one appears

• if the subject company is a GOU, when it isn't a GOU anymore

• if the subject is not a GOU, when it becomes a GOU


Activate this option to be notified when the there is a variation in the level of ownership of the subject in one of its subsidiaries owned by more than 50%.


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Activate the check-box to receive an email notification when a new image is available from the online scanned report library from Global Reports



• Click on the 'DONE' button to confirm your selection and return to the company report you were viewing.


• Click on the 'Cancel' button to ignore your selection and return to company report you were viewing.

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3.3.6 Managing & Configuring the Alert System The management and configuration tool of the Alert module allows you to :

1. Manage all previously files (company sets or search strategies) saved on the application's server, determine which ones are included in the Alert System, modify or include a previously saved file in the alert system and determine specific recipients for specific files.

2. Configure the email notification format, frequency and recipients.

3.3.6.1 Accessing

There are several different ways you can access the alerts management & configuration tool:

1. By clicking on from the top-right hand side of any screen you are working from

2. Accessing the Profile module ( ) and clicking on "Alert System". .

3. After having specified the alerts for a specific entity, by clicking on the 'Configuration' button at the bottom right of the dialog

In the first two cases, the following dialog, listing all the files saved to the application's server, is displayed:

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In the third case, you directly access the alert configuration dialog (also accessible by clicking on the 'Configuration' tab from the dialog above):

3.3.6.2 Managing alerts on previously saved files

Upon accessing the alert management tool, you are presented with a list of previously saved files with a number columns.

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3.3.6.3 Deleting a previously saved file

To delete a previously saved file, click on a from the first column. The file will be deleted from the server and this cannot be undone. If the file was included in the Alert System, it will not be included anymore.

3.3.6.4 Including/modifying a previously saved file in the alert system

If a file has 'yes' indicated in the Active alert column, this means that the file is already included in the alert system. If 'no' is indicated under this same column, it mean that the file is not currently included in the alert system.

1. Click on 'no' to include the previously saved file in the alert system.

2. Click on 'yes' to modify the alert criteria on the file.

3.3.6.5 Specifying recipients for each file in the alert system

When you add a file to the Alert System, by default all the recipients specified in the Configuration settings of the alert system will receive the alerts associated to the file.

To limit the number of recipients of a specific file:

1. Click on the email addresses of the file under the column labelled recipients.

2. Click on the recipient(s) you wish to exclude

3. Click on '<'.

4. Click on 'OK' to validate the operation.

Notes: • Click on '<<' to remove all recipents • To re-include a recipient, highlight it and click on '>'.

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3.3.7 Configuring the alert settings The alert settings configuration screen allows you to:

3.3.7.1 Define the format and frequency of the email notification

1. To define the format of your email notifications, select Text or HTML from the Select format field. By default, emails are sent in text format.

2. By default email notifications are sent on a weekly basis, every Monday. You may keep the weekly frequency and change the day on which the email is sent or change the frequency to a monthly or daily basis. You can also choose to receive the email alert immediately after a change. To do so, select the appropriate radio button.

3.3.7.2 Specify all the potential recipients of an alert

A text-box is provided allowing you to enter one or more recipients. If you type in more than one recipient, separate the different email addresses with a semi-column (example: [email protected];[email protected];[email protected])

By default all these recipients will receive an email on the alerts that you set up. To see how to limit the recipients on a specific file, please refer to 'Managing alerts on previously saved files'.

3.3.7.3 Activate the software update and/or data update alert

1. To be notified when the database is updated, activate the check-box next to 'Please notify me of the latest database update (Database is updated weekly)'.

2. To be notified when the software is updated, activate the check-box next to 'Please notify me of the latest software update'.

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