Annual Reports

I am frequently asked where to find annual reports. There are a number of places to look depending on the type, size of company and number of years required.

For larger UK companies FAME will provide all the financial information contained on the annual report. For most companies this information is available for 10 years. On FAME you can configue this information into a report and take out the bits you don't need.

For many companies the annual report is available on the company's website. However, you may need to search for it because they are not very prominant.  Look in the 'about us' or 'corporate' section and the annual reports can usually be found under 'investor relations'. Often you will need to scroll down to the bottom of the webpage.  It can be useful to look on the company's website because you can usually find highlights of the annual report and the interim reports. Usually a company will only keep the latest year's report. If you are interested in the non-financial information given in an annual report, such as the director's statement, forward strategy, review of the year's activities etc looking at the pdf version on the website is a good option.

There are other websites where you can get annual reports, such as Northcote, http://www.northcote.co.uk/ These are mainly for UK companies. The annual reports available are variable because it depends on the company making their report available to Northcote. Often you will find a number of years available.

If you are looking for the annual report of a smaller company, which will not be available on FAME or on their website you can apply to Companies House  http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/ All companies are required to submit their audited accounts each year (although the amount of detail required varies according to the size of the company). You will also need to pay a small charge for the accounts.