Hong Kong Company & Shareholder Directory
Company register search for 3.8M+ Hong Kong companies, plus shareholder, officer and beneficial ownership records sourced directly from official government registries.
Hong Kong company register data comes from the Companies Registry (ICRIS/e-Registry), covering incorporation records and Annual Return shareholder filings, alongside the Significant Controllers Register (SCR) created under the Companies (Amendment) Ordinance 2018. It's held at each company's registered office and is not a public document, accessible only to law enforcement and specified authorities, at a threshold of more than 25% across five separate control conditions. Companies listed on the HKEX are exempt from SCR requirements, since SFC disclosure rules apply instead, while companies redomiciling to Hong Kong since May 2025 fall fully into scope. Annual Return shareholder data and TCSP licensing status verify directly at source; corporate shareholders are traced upstream through transparent registers like the UK's or Luxembourg's, though chains terminating in mainland China typically resolve into non-public territory instead.
Hong Kong beneficial ownership guideTop Companies in Hong Kong
Live from the register. Every row opens the full record — officers, shareholders and resolved group structure.
Data Coverage
Record counts by data layer for Hong Kong, as of the last reconciliation.
Analysis
What this data actually tells you about Hong Kong
Hong Kong requires most businesses to complete two separate registrations: incorporation with the Companies Registry (CR), which issues a Certificate of Incorporation and CR number, and a mandatory Business Registration Certificate from the Inland Revenue Department, issued within one month of starting business. 1,557,103 local and re-domiciled companies were registered with the CR at end-2025, an all-time high (up from 1,460,494 at end-2024) — though this figure counts every company ever incorporated and not yet dissolved, not currently-operating businesses; Hong Kong’s own SME count (roughly 360,000 operating enterprises as of March 2026, over 98% of all enterprises, employing about 1.2 million people) better reflects actual economic activity. A further 15,586 non-Hong Kong companies had registered a local place of business by end-2025.
Beneficial-ownership transparency in Hong Kong works differently from the UK/EU model covered for several countries earlier in this directory: the Significant Controllers Register (SCR), in force since March 2018, is NOT a central public register — it is kept privately at each company’s own registered office, inspectable only by law enforcement and persons named on it. A government consultation has proposed requiring companies to additionally file SCR information with the Registrar, but current research could not confirm whether implementing legislation has actually been enacted, so this should be treated as a proposed reform still under consideration rather than a completed one. Hong Kong is not on the FATF grey list, having achieved a rare "compliant and effective" rating in its 2019 Mutual Evaluation (the first Asia-Pacific jurisdiction to do so that round) and remaining in routine, non-punitive follow-up status since. Hong Kong’s currency has been pegged to the US dollar since October 1983 (currently HK$7.75-7.85 per US$1), and it levies no VAT/GST, no capital gains tax, and a simple two-tier profits tax (8.25%/16.5%) — a genuinely distinctive low-tax, high-openness regulatory environment that also makes it one of the world’s largest FDI conduits: inward direct investment stock reached HK$20,049.6 billion (631% of GDP) at end-2024, though 68.2% of that stock sits in investment-holding, real estate, and professional/business services — predominantly pass-through capital rather than FDI into Hong Kong operating businesses.
Hong Kong company base, broken down
Charts render from live counts. Where coverage is partial, the excluded population is stated on the chart.
Company size, by disclosed headcount
By number of employees on file. Entities with no disclosed headcount are not counted in any band.
Enterprises by size category
Hong Kong does not use the EU’s multi-tier micro/small/medium/large classification. Its Trade and Industry Department defines an SME as a manufacturing enterprise with fewer than 100 persons engaged, or a non-manufacturing enterprise with fewer than 50 — a single binary cut rather than several employee-count bands. As of March 2026, approximately 360,000 SMEs operate in Hong Kong, representing over 98% of all enterprises and employing about 1.2 million people (more than 43% of total persons engaged, excluding civil service). The 2.0% "non-SME" row is the mathematical complement of the sourced "over 98%" SME share, not an independently sourced figure in its own right. Source: Trade and Industry Department, SUCCESS SME portal (success.tid.gov.hk), data as of March 2026.
Foreign-controlled entities
11,070 companies in Hong Kong had parent companies located outside Hong Kong as of the 2025 Annual Survey of Companies in Hong Kong with Parent Companies Located outside Hong Kong (enumeration date June 2, 2025) — a record high, comprising 1,510 Regional Headquarters, 2,500 Regional Offices, and 7,060 Local Offices, together employing about 509,000 people. By parent-company location, the Chinese Mainland accounted for the largest single group of Regional Headquarters (350), ahead of Japan (220) and the United States (200). This entity count is not directly comparable as a percentage of the ~1.56 million companies on the Companies Registry, since that broader register includes many inactive/shell entities; the raw count is presented here rather than a computed share for that reason. Separately, monetary inward FDI stock reached HK$20,049.6 billion (631% of GDP) at end-2024, per the Census and Statistics Department — referenced in the country narrative as context, not as a comparable entity or employment share.
Who uses Hong Kong ownership data
The three checks this page's data is most often run for.
KYB onboarding
Verifying a Hong Kong counterparty means confirming the beneficial owner behind the entity and evidencing where that answer came from, not just pulling the registered name.
AML and sanctions screening
Sanctions exposure often sits above the operating company, in a holding layer registered elsewhere. Screening the local entity alone will not surface it; screening the resolved ownership chain will.
Supplier and credit risk
Only 1,714 Hong Kong entities have digitized accounts on file, so group membership is often a better solvency signal than a standalone balance sheet.
Get complete shareholder and officer records, ultimate beneficial owner resolution, and ongoing ownership monitoring for Hong Kong companies — via API or a bulk data feed.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many companies does Zavia have on record for Hong Kong?
Zavia holds 3.8M+ company records for Hong Kong, of which 1.8M+ (47%) are currently active on the register.
Is beneficial ownership (UBO) data public in Hong Kong?
Hong Kong company register data comes from the Companies Registry (ICRIS/e-Registry), covering incorporation records and Annual Return shareholder filings, alongside the Significant Controllers Register (SCR) created under the Companies (Amendment) Ordinance 2018. It's held at each company's registered office and is not a public document, accessible only to law enforcement and specified authorities, at a threshold of more than 25% across five separate control conditions. Companies listed on the HKEX are exempt from SCR requirements, since SFC disclosure rules apply instead, while companies redomiciling to Hong Kong since May 2025 fall fully into scope. Annual Return shareholder data and TCSP licensing status verify directly at source; corporate shareholders are traced upstream through transparent registers like the UK's or Luxembourg's, though chains terminating in mainland China typically resolve into non-public territory instead.
Does Zavia have shareholder and group structure data for Hong Kong companies?
Yes. Zavia holds 619 shareholder records for Hong Kong companies, with 191,744 ultimate parent relationships resolved for group-structure and ownership-chain mapping.
Does Zavia have director and officer data for Hong Kong companies?
Yes. Zavia holds 12,335 officer and director records for Hong Kong companies, sourced directly from the same official register as the company's own filing.
Does Zavia have VAT registration data for Hong Kong companies?
Yes. Zavia holds 3 VAT records for Hong Kong companies, linked to the same registered entity as its company profile.
Does Zavia have financial report data for Hong Kong companies?
Yes. Zavia holds 1,714 digitized financial reports for Hong Kong companies, available through Zavia's enriched company data for verified users.
How is share ownership disclosed in Hong Kong?
Share ownership in Hong Kong is disclosed through the Annual Return (NAR1), filed under the Companies Ordinance (Cap. 622).
Can I access Hong Kong's company data through an API?
Yes. Zavia's API connects directly to official government ownership registries across 195 countries and territories, including Hong Kong, so company registration, shareholder, UBO, officer, and group-structure records can be queried programmatically instead of browsed one page at a time.
Where can I read more about how UBO verification works in Hong Kong?
Zavia's Hong Kong beneficial ownership guide covers the register, the UBO threshold, and how to verify a company's ownership chain in more depth than this directory page.