Spanish Company Registry Glossary

Spanish company records answer some questions precisely and others not at all. This glossary explains the terms that most often mislead people researching a Spanish company from abroad, and is written to correct the specific assumptions that do not transfer from other jurisdictions.

What does "socio unico" mean, and why is it the only ownership Spain publishes?

A socio unico is a sole shareholder — the single person or company that owns 100% of a Spanish company. Spain requires this to be declared to the registry, so it is the one ownership fact the public record reliably contains. It is not a general shareholder list.

This is the single most misread part of Spanish company data. When a company has no socio unico recorded, that means it is not wholly owned by one party — it does not mean the owner is unknown, and it certainly does not mean the company has no owner. A company with three shareholders simply produces no ownership entry at all.

Why can I not find a Spanish company's shareholders or cap table?

Because Spain does not maintain one publicly. Unlike the UK's confirmation statement or similar filings elsewhere, there is no public register of a Spanish company's shareholders. Only sole ownership is disclosed, along with share transfers that happen to be inscribed for other reasons.

If you need the full shareholder position of a Spanish company, the public record will not give it to you at any price. It generally requires the company's own corporate books, a notarial deed, or disclosure from the counterparty.

What is the BORME, and how does it differ from the Registro Mercantil?

The Registro Mercantil is the companies registry itself. The BORME (Boletin Oficial del Registro Mercantil) is the official daily bulletin that publishes what the registry has inscribed — incorporations, director appointments and cessations, capital changes, dissolutions.

The practical consequence: BORME is a stream of published events, not a live snapshot of a company. Reconstructing a company's current state means reading its filings in order, which is what this site does.

What is a nota simple, and when do I need one instead?

A nota simple is an official informative extract issued by the Registro Mercantil summarising a company's current registry position. It is the document to request when you need something official, dated and attributable — for a transaction, a court filing or a regulator.

Derived data, including everything on this site, is useful for research, screening and mapping relationships. It is not a substitute for a nota simple where an official document is required.

What is a hoja registral, and why does it matter more than the company name?

The hoja registral is the registry sheet opened for each company, identified by a province and sheet number. It is the company's durable identity in the registry.

This matters because company names change and are reused, while the hoja does not. Two companies can share a name across provinces, and a company that renames keeps the same hoja. Tracking a company by name alone will eventually merge two different entities or lose one across a rename — a common and consequential research error.

Where are Spanish annual accounts (Cuentas Anuales)?

Cuentas Anuales are the annual financial statements that Spanish companies deposit with the Registro Mercantil each year. They are deposited separately from the events published in the BORME and are obtained as registry documents, usually for a fee.

So a company's registry history and its financial statements are two different sources. Directors, capital and structure come from BORME filings; revenue, assets and results do not appear there at all.

What is the difference between an administrador and an apoderado?

An administrador is a director — part of the body that governs and legally represents the company. An apoderado holds a power of attorney granting specific authority to act, often narrow and often operational.

Confusing the two badly distorts a due-diligence picture. Large Spanish companies routinely have hundreds of apoderados, including branch and regional staff. Treating them as directors turns a five-person board into a list of hundreds and buries the people who actually control the company.

What does "cargo vigente" or "cesado" mean, and can a director look active when they are not?

Vigente means a position is currently held; cesado means it has ended. Both derive from published appointment and cessation events.

The trap is that a cessation only appears if someone inscribed it. Departures are not always filed, and a dissolved company frequently has no cessation entries at all — so directors can appear indefinitely active in the raw record. Treat a long-unchanged appointment at a dormant or dissolved company as unconfirmed rather than current.

What is a NIF, and is it the same as a CIF?

The NIF (Numero de Identificacion Fiscal) is the tax identification number of a Spanish company. CIF is the former name for the company equivalent and was superseded, though the term is still used informally and appears on older documents. In practice people asking for a CIF want the NIF.

The NIF is a tax identifier rather than a registry one, so it is not part of what the BORME publishes. Where a NIF is shown here it comes from other sources and is labelled accordingly.

What is the minimum share capital of a Spanish SL?

Since the Ley 18/2022 reform, a sociedad de responsabilidad limitada (SL) can be incorporated with share capital as low as one euro, subject to reserve requirements until it reaches the previous threshold. Older sources widely cite around 3,000 euros, which was the long-standing minimum before the change.

Consequently a very low stated capital in a recently incorporated company is not by itself a warning sign, and comparisons against the older figure will misread companies formed after the reform.

Disolucion and extincion — is a dissolved company gone?

Not necessarily. Disolucion opens the process of winding a company up; the company continues to exist in liquidation. Extincion is the final cancellation of its registry sheet, after which the entity is gone.

A company can remain dissolved but not extinguished for years. It still exists, may still hold assets and obligations, and should not be read as struck off.

Search a Spanish company | Data coverage and sources | Version en espanol