How to Find a Company Registration Number in Malaysia

By Axecta Management Services, Kuala Lumpur · Last verified: 29 October 2026

The short version: where the number lives

Every company, business and LLP registered with the Companies Commission of Malaysia (SSM) has one registration number. For a company it is assigned at the moment of registration: section 15 of the Companies Act 2016.pdf) says that when the Registrar is satisfied the application is in order, the Registrar enters the particulars in the register, assigns a registration number to the company, and issues a notice of registration. Section 18(1) then says that on the date of incorporation shown in that notice, there is a company “by the name and registration number as stated in the principal register”.

So the number is part of the company’s legal identity, not a label added later. That also tells you where to look first: the documents SSM issues at incorporation.

Where to look, in order of reliability

The Certificate of Incorporation is only issued by the Registrar on an application and on payment of a prescribed fee (s17). Many companies are therefore holding a notice of registration and a later-issued certificate. Either carries the number. If you cannot find either, treat that as a prompt to buy a fresh company profile rather than hunt through old emails.

Step by step: find the number from scratch

1. Gather the exact company name. Spelling matters: “Sdn Bhd”, “Sdn. Bhd.” and “Berhad” endings, punctuation and word order can all differ from what you remember. Use a contract, invoice, bank statement or letter that names the company.
2. Check documents already in your files. Search your email and shared drives for “Certificate of Incorporation” and “Notice of Registration”, and for any PDF or email from SSM.
3. Ask the company secretary. The secretary keeps the statutory registers and normally holds the incorporation documents. If you have just changed secretaries, the previous one should have handed over the records. See what a company secretary does.
4. Search SSM’s information portals. SSM’s corporate information page lists four portals supplied by appointed service providers: SSM e-Info, MYDATA-SSM, SSM Search and SSM SAFEDATA. SSM’s e-Info page describes the Company Profile product as including “company name, company registration number and check digit”. Search by name, open the profile and read the number from the top of the report.
5. Check the tax side if needed. The tax identification number is a separate LHDN number; see LHDN’s page on tax file registration for companies for how companies obtain it.
6. Cross-check. Compare the number on the profile with any older document. If the two numbers differ in format (a 12-digit number against a shorter one with a letter at the end), that is normal and explained below.
7. Record it in one place. Put the number and the exact legal name in your master company file so nobody has to search again.

What the number looks like

SSM’s announcement on the new format states that from 11 October 2019 SSM uses a registration number of 12 characters for companies, businesses and LLPs. The number appears on all corporate information that SSM supplies. During the transition, the existing registration number is shown alongside the new one, and SSM said the length of the transition would be announced later.

The announcement gives an example: a sample company with the new number 201901000005 and the old number 1312525-A. Two things can be read from SSM’s own example. First, the new number is 12 characters of digits. Second, the old number was shorter and ended with a letter after a hyphen. Third-party explainers describe the first four digits as the year of registration, the next two as an entity-type code and the last six as a running number, but SSM’s announcement page does not itemise the digits, so use that breakdown as an indication rather than a rule. For the full story, see new vs old company registration number.

Sole proprietors, partnerships and LLPs

The same 12-character format applies to businesses and LLPs, according to the announcement. A sole proprietor’s number sits on the certificate of registration issued under the Registration of Businesses Act 1956 (ROBA). Section 5F of that Act says a certificate “having a registration number” and carrying the applicant’s or business name is conclusive evidence that the business is duly registered. Section 11A requires the certificate to be kept exhibited in a conspicuous place at the principal place of business, and a copy at each branch, so the physical certificate should be on your premises. You can read the Act on SSM’s Registration of Businesses Act page. If it is missing, SSM’s corporate information page lists a “Copy of a Business Registration Certificate” and a “Business Profile” among its products, which also give the number and owner details.

What each SSM product tells you

Knowing which product to ask for avoids paying for the wrong report.

Angle: which entity are you?

Sdn Bhd

Your Certificate of Incorporation and notice of registration are the primary evidence. The company must also state its name and registration number on many documents, so you will find the number on invoices, letterheads and the website footer. See where your SSM number is used.

Sole proprietor or partnership

The number is on the ROBA certificate. A business must apply for registration within 30 days of starting (ROBA s5(1)), and the registration lasts for a period that does not exceed five years unless renewed (s5(3)). When it expires, the certificate number remains a historical identifier, but you should renew. SSM also provides a Business Expiry Confirmation Letter for expired registrations.

LLP

LLP numbers follow the same 12-character system. The LLP certificate and the LLP’s compliance officer are the places to look. If you are comparing structures, see what an LLP is.

Foreign-owned or foreign-managed companies

Foreign shareholders often hold only scanned copies of incorporation documents. If those copies are low quality or show different spellings, purchase a current company profile so the number and name are read directly from the register. A foreign company registered in Malaysia has a separate “company number” allocated to it on registration (Companies Act s565(3)), which is different from the number of its Malaysian subsidiary.

A realistic scenario (illustrative)

A trading company has been asked by a new customer for its SSM number to set up a vendor account. The finance executive who set up the company left two years ago, and the certificate is not in the shared drive. The operations manager tries the following, in this order: she asks the company secretary, who confirms the number from the statutory registers; she then buys a company profile from an SSM portal to verify the name and number as they stand on the register today; and she saves a PDF of the profile in the company file. The profile shows the director list is out of date, which triggers a separate update by the secretary. The whole exercise answers the customer’s question and surfaces a compliance gap at the same time. The figures in this example are not real; the process is.

Common mistakes

• Copying the number from another company’s invoice. A supplier’s invoice shows the supplier’s number, not yours. Always use your own incorporation documents or a fresh profile.
• Using a number with a transposed digit. A single wrong digit points to a different entity. Read the number against the certificate, character by character.
• Mixing old and new numbers. The old number was shorter and ended in a letter. Quote the 12-digit number in new documents.
• Relying on third-party websites. They may be out of date or wrong. Use SSM or its appointed portals.
• Searching only by a trading name. The legal name and the trade name are often different. Search the legal name.
• Ignoring the status. A company can be found on a search and still be struck off or in liquidation. Read the profile, not just the number. See how to verify a number with SSM.

How Axecta helps

If your records are incomplete, Axecta’s company secretarial team can pull the current company profile, reconcile the name and number against what appears on your invoices, bank forms and tax records, and rebuild a clean statutory file. This is useful before a bank application, a tender, an audit or a change of company secretary. Our related guide on documents for a corporate bank account shows the documents that banks usually ask for alongside the registration number.

Next steps

1. Locate your Certificate of Incorporation or notice of registration and file a scanned copy.
2. If it is missing, ask your secretary or buy a current company profile from an SSM portal.
3. Compare the number against invoices, website footer and bank records.
4. Record the legal name, 12-digit number, incorporation date and registered address together.
5. Tell your accountant the number so your tax and e-invoice records match. See company registration number vs TIN.

Frequently asked questions