A numbered company is a

corporation A corporation is an organization—usually a group of people or a company—authorized by the state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law "born out of statute"; a legal person in legal context) and ...

given a generic name based on its sequentially assigned registration number. For instance, an entity incorporated under the

Canada Business Corporations Act The ''Canada Business Corporations Act'' (CBCA; french: Loi canadienne sur les sociétés par actions) is an act of the Parliament of Canada regulating Canadian business corporations. Corporations in Canada may be incorporated federally, under t ...

and assigned the corporation number 1234567 would be entitled to register "1234567 Canada Inc." as its legal name. Similarly, in Australia, a company assigned the

Australian Company Number An Australian Company Number (usually shortened to ACN) is a unique identifier required by every company registered under Australia’s ''Corporations Act 2001'' (Cth). The ACN is a nine-digit number issued by the Australian Securities & Investm ...

123 456 789 upon registration can have its legal name as "123 456 789

Pty Ltd A proprietary company, the characteristic of which is abbreviated as "Pty", is a form of privately held company in Australia, Namibia and South Africa that is either limited or unlimited. However, unlike a public company there are, depending ...

".ASIC "How to register a company: Using the ACN as a name" http://www.asic.gov.au/asic/ASIC.NSF/byHeadline/Starting%20a%20company%20or%20business#step2 Numbered companies may include, but are by no means limited to, new companies that have not yet determined a permanent

brand A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create ...

identity, or

shell companies A shell corporation is a company or corporation that exists only on paper and has no office and no employees, but may have a bank account or may hold passive investments or be the registered owner of assets, such as intellectual property, or ...

used by much larger enterprises for various purposes. In some cases, a legitimately-active enterprise may be structured as a numbered company with a

doing business as A trade name, trading name, or business name, is a pseudonym used by companies that do not operate under their registered company name. The term for this type of alternative name is a "fictitious" business name. Registering the fictitious name w ...

registration to provide the numbered entity with a name. A common reason for this is a

franchise Franchise may refer to: Business and law * Franchising, a business method that involves licensing of trademarks and methods of doing business to franchisees * Franchise, a privilege to operate a type of business such as a cable television p ...

, where the franchisee is a numbered company, doing business under the franchised identity. This may also be done for the convenience of lawyers, who create a

shelf corporation A shelf corporation, shelf company, or aged corporation is a company or corporation that has had no activity. It was created and left with no activity – metaphorically put on the "shelf" to "age". The company can then be sold to a person or gr ...

advent corporation Advent Corporation was a consumer audio and video hardware company founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts by Henry Kloss in 1967. It closed in 1981. The name came from the legal description ''the advent corporation'' used in the incorporation docu ...

and then assign the recognisable identity later.

References

External links

Certification and Engineering Bureau - Company Name Search
Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada Types of business entity {{Canada-company-stub