BvD Grows Global Coverage, Adds Historical Fundamentals

The vendor recently added coverage of listed companies in Australia, Afghanistan, Kosovo, Moldova, Burma, Brunei, Turkey, Algeria, Denmark, Morocco, Serbia, Portugal, Russia and Finland, and will now focus on increasing the depth of its existing fundamental information on companies in Africa and Central and South America, where obtaining comprehensive and reliable data can be challenging, says Louise Green, international marketing manager at BvD in London.

"For some of those regions, we only had the major listed companies, so we added additional companies to complete our coverage. For others, like Australia, we didn't have much before, so the addition of the data─even if it's just registration details to show that a company exists─is significant," Green says, adding that BvD is sourcing the data via niche domestic or regional information providers.

In addition to increasing the breadth of its coverage, the vendor is also increasing the level of detail and depth of information in its database, most recently with the addition of trademark and patent information─sourced from the US Patent and Trademark Office and the European Union's equivalent trademark body, the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market─which clients can use to inform company valuations, Green says. For example, a company's patents or trademarks can add to its value in terms of intellectual property, which may not be accurately reflected by only looking at the value of a company's physical assets.

Meanwhile, BvD is adding access to asset/liability management documents to its Bankscope banking and Orbis database products, including banking license documents, certificates of incorporation, anti-money laundering questionnaires and US Patriot Act certifications to support customers' compliance needs, and has also enhanced the detail of its financial strength reports, which show multiple views of a company's financial viability. The reports, which are used for procurement, risk management, and credit risk purposes, now include more details, such as a company's credit limits, Green adds.

The vendor has also begun linking historical records to current company records in its database, to provide customers with historical company records, such as standardized company financials, financial strength indicators, ratings and stock data.

"We have a database of over 130 million companies, and for some of those companies we have 20 years of history, but we can't practically have all that on the product. Also, it's incredibly complicated to link back to old records, as companies frequently stop trading, change their name or go through reorganizations," Green says.

Clients interested in studying specific companies over time or carrying out statistical research on successful companies' trading patterns can request historical data as a flat file.