How to Access Reliable Private Company Data in Malaysia

Understanding Who Needs Private Company Data—and Why

Private company data is a critical resource for professionals across private equity, consulting, tax advisory, and corporate strategy roles. Unlike public companies, private firms are not obligated to disclose detailed financial information, yet they often represent valuable investment opportunities or competitive threats. Accessing accurate and timely data on these entities is essential for conducting benchmarking, due diligence, company profiling, and market entry assessments.

For example, transfer pricing specialists rely on private company data to conduct comparability analyses. Consultants use it to benchmark performance, and investors assess a target’s valuation and financial health. However, the opaque nature of private enterprises in Southeast Asia—particularly in Malaysia—makes sourcing this information a complex task. With regulatory and language differences adding further friction, professionals need clear pathways to retrieve and analyse the right data efficiently.

Public Sources Exist Across Most ASEAN-6 Countries

Most ASEAN-6 countries maintain official business registries that allow for some level of public access to private company data. These include ACRA (Singapore), SSM (Malaysia), DBD (Thailand), and their equivalents in Vietnam, the Philippines, and Indonesia. While these portals offer useful information, the scope and accessibility vary.

For instance, Thailand’s DBD platform offers free, downloadable financials, while Singapore’s BizFile is transparent and user-friendly but paywalled for detailed reports. In contrast, the Philippines relies on a physical document delivery model via the SEC Express System, which can delay access and add costs. Indonesia lacks a centralised portal, often requiring manual outreach or third-party sourcing.

Public Sources in Malaysia Are Functional but Fragmented

Malaysia’s public company data is managed by the Companies Commission of Malaysia (SSM), accessible via the SSM e-Info portal. While this platform offers essential company details and financial statements, it requires registration and maintaining an e-account balance to begin searching. Users can view scanned audited statements, but downloading is not permitted unless additional payments are made.

Compared to other ASEAN countries, Malaysia’s system is functional but presents practical limitations. Although free registration is a benefit, the fragmented user experience and layered access controls can slow down workflows—particularly when handling multiple companies in benchmarking or due diligence work.

Moreover, while basic profile information is often easy to access, extracting deeper insights—such as shareholder structure, revenue trends, or related party transactions—may not be feasible through public sources alone.

Professional Databases Unlock Deeper, Reliable Insights

For professionals conducting high-stakes or large-scale analysis, relying solely on public sources is rarely sufficient. This is where comprehensive platforms like Speeda add transformative value. Speeda consolidates private and public company data across ASEAN countries, including Malaysia, into one intuitive platform. This significantly reduces the time, cost, and complexity of data gathering.

With coverage of over 11 million companies in ASEAN, China, and Korea, Speeda enables users to filter by industry, financials, and location. All data is digitised and downloadable in Excel format, streamlining integration into internal reports or benchmarking models.

Treasure Advisory, a Malaysia-based transfer pricing firm, uses Speeda to support its documentation and benchmarking work. According to Alycia, its Director, Speeda reduced research time from six days to a fraction of that. She notes, “The tools available in Speeda are indispensable for extracting relevant comparable information for benchmarking studies. Our processing time has been cut down tremendously, allowing us to focus more on decision-making rather than data collection.”

Beyond Company Data: Industry Reports and Expert Insights

What sets Speeda apart isn’t just access to company profiles—it’s the ecosystem of business intelligence surrounding it. The platform includes over 3,000 written industry reports by our in-house team covering 560 sectors. These reports provide insights into market trends, value chains, and competition, making them invaluable for contextualising financial data.

Speeda also includes expert network access for on-demand consulting and offers M&A data, shareholder information, and related party transaction filters—all critical elements for transfer pricing, investment research, and strategic planning.

Moreover, the system supports Malaysia’s local regulatory needs, including compliance with Inland Revenue Board (IRB) standards. Speeda’s custom filters allow users to identify companies that meet revenue thresholds for transfer pricing comparability, saving users from screening out exempt entities manually.

Tips for Analysts: Combine Sources and Use Cases

In practice, the most effective analysts combine public sources with platforms like Speeda. For instance, SSM can be used to verify company registration details or download statutory documents, while Speeda helps build benchmarking sets, assess industries, and extract financial data efficiently.

One key use case is transfer pricing benchmarking. Rather than manually compiling a list of 100 companies per project, analysts can use Speeda’s filters to select by local SIC codes, revenue range, or ownership structure, quickly generating a compliant and defensible set of comparables.

Speeda’s flexibility also helps researchers adjust ratios, evaluate industry medians, and reference sector reports—all within the same platform—reducing both compliance risk and analyst fatigue.

Get Expert Support for Malaysian Company Data

If you’re struggling to collect and analyse private company data in Malaysia—or need to improve the efficiency and accuracy of your current process—Speeda can help. From financial data and shareholder information to benchmarking support and industry analysis, the platform provides an end-to-end solution.

Looking for reliable data on Malaysian private companies? Reach out to us today to explore how Speeda can support your work.