Every legal form in Australia, each with its abbreviation, the kind of entity it is, liability and typical use where they are well established, and the values the Prometiam company object returns.
This guide lists the 3 legal forms the Prometiam dictionary knows for Australia: what each is called, how it is abbreviated, what kind of entity it is and how it appears in the company object. Use it to read the legal_form of a company registered in Australia, or to decode a form you meet in a contract or on an invoice. It is a general reference, not legal advice.
Coverage and limits for Australia: company records only (no officers, no registry-compliance signal, no activity code, no share capital, no insolvency notices); proprietary, public and foreign companies (ACN and ARBN) only, associations, cooperatives, other bodies, individuals and sole traders are never served; ASIC does not separate liquidation from administration, so external administration shows as in_administration. Contains data from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) Company Dataset and the Australian Business Register (ABN Bulk Extract), licensed CC BY 3.0 AU (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/au/). Adapted by Prometiam (joined, normalised, status derived).
| Form | Abbreviation | Kind | What to know |
|---|---|---|---|
| Australian proprietary company | Pty Ltd, Pty | Private limited company | An Australian proprietary company (ASIC company type APTY), returned as Pty Ltd. |
| Australian public company | Ltd | Public limited company (joint-stock company) | An Australian public company (ASIC company type APUB), returned as Ltd. |
| Foreign company registered in Australia | - | Branch of a foreign company | A foreign company registered in Australia; it is identified by an ARBN rather than an ACN. |
Every company object carries four legal-form fields: legal_form (the standard abbreviation, null when the form is not mapped), legal_form_family (the cross-country family, so a private limited company compares across countries), local_legal_form (the register’s own value or code as stored) and local_legal_form_name (the register’s name for it, where it publishes one). Each form below shows the values the API returns for it.
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer rk_live_..." \ "https://api.prometiam.com/functions/v1/risk-api/companies/search?country=AU&name=<company name>" # each result carries, for example: # "legal_form": "Pty Ltd" # "legal_form_family": "private_limited_company"
Private limited company: a company with its own legal personality whose owners are, as a rule, not personally liable for its debts and whose shares are not offered to the public.
An Australian proprietary company (ASIC company type APTY), returned as Pty Ltd.
Pty Ltd, Ptylegal_form Pty Ltd, legal_form_family private_limited_company, local_legal_form APTYPublic limited company (joint-stock company): a company with its own legal personality and share capital whose owners are, as a rule, not personally liable; the family of forms that can usually raise money from the public.
An Australian public company (ASIC company type APUB), returned as Ltd.
Ltdlegal_form Ltd, legal_form_family public_limited_company, local_legal_form APUBBranch of a foreign company: an establishment or registration of a company incorporated abroad.
A foreign company registered in Australia; it is identified by an ARBN rather than an ACN.
legal_form Foreign company registered in Australia, legal_form_family branch_of_foreign_company, local_legal_form FNOSSee the Australia company data API guide for the register behind these records and the free ACN lookup to try an identifier. For the register states that go with these forms, read company status in Australia. All countries: company legal forms.
Search by name or identifier and read legal_form, legal_form_family and local_legal_form on every result, or filter a bulk list by family.
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