Contents
The Company Register is the central platform for making company data accessible. Information required to be published about companies is collected centrally here and made electronically retrievable for interested parties.
In the Company register, the data submitted for posting pursuant to section 8b (3) sentence 1 HGB, with the exception of the documents posted for permanent deposit, shall be made directly accessible on the internet. These include:
- Accounting documents and company reports disclosed pursuant to the Commercial Code, the Disclosure Act, the Railway Regulation Act, the Energy Industry Act, the Remuneration Transparency Act, the Capital Investment Code, the Telecommunications Act, the Investment Schemes Act or the Securities Trading Act
- Publications and other information made available to the public pursuant to the German Securities Trading Act (Wertpapierhandelsgesetz)
- Entries in the trade, cooperative, corporation and partnership register and documents filed there as well as notices of registration
- Announcements and publications of § 8b para. 2 nos. 5, 7 and 8 HGB from the Federal Gazette
- Notices on publications under capital market law
- Further contents: Announcements of the insolvency courts, announcements of authorities pursuant to the German Securities Trading Act and the German Investment Act and entries published in the Shareholders' Forum
At the Company Register we offer registered users the possibility of authenticating published annual financial statements either electronically (as a digitally-signed PDF document) or in paper format. The exact authentication procedure can be referred to in the section FAQ.
If you require an authenticated annual financial statement, such as for use in foreign commercial transactions, an apostille is in many cases also required.
An apostille is a simplified form of legalisation (a confirmation that a signature is indeed that of the issuing person) for an authenticated document. Published annual financial statements can be seen as documents.
For annual financial statements the “issuing person” is the Company Register, as it performs the authentication.
First have the published or filed annual financial statement in the Company register certified in paper format and then forward the certified version to the Federal Office for Foreign Affairs (Bundesamt für Auswärtige Angelegenheiten, BfAA), Apostille and Claims Management Division (Referat Apostillen und Forderungsmanagement). There the authenticity of the signature of the Company register will be checked and in case of confirmation the apostille will be issued. Please note the information on "Apostilles and Final Certifications" on the website of the BfAA.
Contact
We can help you
Our service number: 0 800 - 1 23 43 44 Mon - Fri, 8:00 am to 6:30 pm, free of charge from a German landline
From outside Germany: +49 221 - 9 76 68-0 fees apply
In case of problems, valuable information can be found in the area of FAQ.