Search Spanish companies and understand the company register
Search company and director histories published in BORME, explore their relationships, and understand when you still need an official document from Spain’s Commercial Registry.
Is there a Spanish Companies House?
Not as one free website. What Companies House does in a single search is split in Spain between the Registro Mercantil, the commercial registry, run by a separate registry in each province, and the BORME, its official gazette. This is where each thing you would look up on Companies House can be found in Spain.
| On Companies House | In Spain | On Mapa Societario |
|---|---|---|
| Search a company by name | The registrars’ online service has a basic search; extracts (notas simples) and certificates are paid. | Free to search, with the company’s published history since 2009. |
| Officers and their other appointments | No official search by person. Directors are named in BORME notices, one notice at a time. | Search a name and see every Spanish company where it was published, with roles and dates, past and present. |
| Filing history | Notices of registered acts appear in the daily BORME; the full history is a paid request to the provincial registry. | Every published act in one timeline, each linked to the official notice it comes from. |
| Annual accounts | Filed with the Registro Mercantil; copies are paid. | Not available: accounts are not published in BORME. |
| People with significant control | The beneficial ownership register is not open to the public; access requires a legitimate interest. | Not available. Sole-shareholder declarations, which are published, are shown. |
| Company number | The tax identification number (NIF), and the sheet number the company has in its provincial registry. | The NIF where we have it. |
Which source should you use?
The three services answer different questions. Registry history requires a paid offline request; Mapa Societario makes BORME publication history immediately explorable as a relationship graph.
| Source | Best for | Historical view | Access | Graph |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mapa Societario | Exploring published company and officer history in one place | Consolidated BORME publication history since 2009 | Free to explore | Yes |
| BORME | Reading the original official notices published each day | Separate daily gazette editions | Free | No |
| Registro Mercantil | Authoritative current extracts, certificates and filed documents | No immediately searchable online history; an offline request typically takes 3–5 days | Paid; historical requests typically cost EUR 20–30 or more | No |
Consult the official BORME editions or the Ministry of Justice registry guidance when you need the original publication or official registry services.
Independent service based on official sources. Mapa Societario uses data from the Agencia Estatal Boletín Oficial del Estado, reused under its reuse conditions. It transforms, combines, and analyzes official BOE/BORME publications through automated processes; it is not the Registro Mercantil, does not issue certificates, and is not endorsed by the AEBOE. The information is provided as is and may contain errors, omissions, or delays. For any material decision, always verify the official BORME edition and, where appropriate, obtain current documents directly from the Registro Mercantil.
What this search is—and is not
Mapa Societario searches a structured index of acts published in the daily BORME editions. Those publications report acts that Spain's provincial Commercial Registries have recorded, such as incorporations, appointments, resignations, capital changes and dissolutions.
The Registro Mercantil offers no public API and no open historical search: fuller information requires registration and payment, and historical records must be requested from the relevant provincial registry, paid in advance and typically delivered in two to five working days. Mapa Societario is not that registry — it issues no certificates or authoritative current extracts, and it does not read a company's registry sheet or the Registro Mercantil Central. Use the relevant official registry when you need those documents.
How Spanish company-register acts reach BORME
The Registro Mercantil records company acts. Notices of many of those acts are then published in the BORME (Boletín Oficial del Registro Mercantil), the official commercial-registry gazette distributed through Spain's BOE publication system.
Mapa Societario structures those daily notices into searchable company histories and relationship graphs. Its coverage therefore reflects what was published in BORME; it is not a mirror of every field or document held by the Commercial Registry.
What the BORME publication search can reveal
Published acts can include company formations, officer appointments and removals, capital increases or reductions, mergers, demergers, dissolutions, registered-office changes and sole-shareholder declarations.
- Published company history, registered-office changes, capital events and other corporate changes.
- Administrators, officers, proxies, appointments and resignations reported in BORME.
- Sole-shareholder declarations and fully owned participations when they are published.
- Connected companies and officer relationships derived from those publications.
When to use the Registro Mercantil instead
Use the relevant Registro Mercantil when you need a certified document, an authoritative current extract, filed annual accounts or information that may be held on the registry sheet but was not published in BORME.
Use Mapa Societario to research published changes over time, find current and former officers inferred from those publications, inspect sole-shareholder declarations and explore cross-company relationships in one consolidated view.
What the service does not replace
BORME does not publish every piece of information held by the Commercial Registry or every fact a buyer, supplier, investor or compliance team may want. Partial shareholders are generally not visible unless a sole-shareholder declaration or another relevant act is published. Annual accounts, beneficial ownership information, websites, emails and commercial contact details require separate sources.
How to use Mapa Societario
- Open the relationship graph and search by company name or officer name.
- Review the company profile, officers, capital events and connected companies derived from BORME publications.
- Expand the graph when a director, proxy, or related company needs more context.
- Order a due diligence report only when you need a PDF record.
Worked example: checking a Spanish company
A first check on a Spanish counterparty, with a well-known retailer, Inditex, as the example. It takes a few minutes, and the first 5 companies or people a day need no account.
- Search the company. A brand name can match several companies: searching “Inditex” lists companies of the group, while the listed parent is registered as Industria de Diseño Textil SA. Check the registered name, legal form and province before you go further.
- Open the profile: registered office, share capital, current officers by role, and the history of published acts, each with a link to the BORME notice it comes from.
- Open a director or board member to see the other Spanish companies where the same name was published, with roles and dates. BORME carries no personal identification number, so treat a name match as a lead and confirm it in the notice.
- Expand the relationship graph to follow shared directors and sole-shareholder links to connected companies.
- When the work is for a client file, a Pro account exports the map and the situation report, and a due diligence report gives you a sourced PDF.
Researching a Spanish company for a client?
Follow the connections, document what you find and share an interactive situation report. See how Mapa Societario works for law firms and for legal, compliance and advisory teams. Mapa Societario for firms
Open the relationship graph | Search company directors | Browse IBEX 35 listed companies | Spanish company due diligence reports