Singapore Entity Types: Pte Ltd, LLP, LP and Foreign Branch
ACRA registers several different legal structures under one register, and this site's entity-type chip shows which one a company is. The differences matter if you're deciding how to deal with a company — who's actually liable, and who owns what.
Private company (Pte Ltd)
A private company limited by shares — the "Pte Ltd" or "Pte. Ltd." after most Singapore company names — is a separate legal person from its shareholders and directors. Its shareholders' liability is limited to what they've paid, or agreed to pay, for their shares; the company's own debts are not personally theirs. A private company cannot offer its shares to the public and is capped at 50 shareholders. This is by far the most common structure on this site — see the full list on theprivate limited companies page.
Public company
A public company is also limited by shares (or, less commonly, by guarantee), but without the private company's cap on shareholder numbers, and it may offer its shares or debentures to the public — which is what lets a public company list on a stock exchange, though not every public company chooses to. ACRA's own type field for a public company overlaps with "Local Company" the same way a private company's does, so this site tells the two apart using the company's declared constitution rather than its entity type alone — see thepublic companies page.
Limited liability partnership (LLP)
An LLP combines a partnership's flexibility with limited liability: it's a legal person in its own right, separate from its partners, so a partner is generally not personally liable for the LLP's debts or for another partner's misconduct or negligence — a structure often used by professional practices such as law and accounting firms. Because an LLP's name is sometimes just its partners' surnames, this site only publishes an LLP if its name also contains a genuine business or legal-form word — seeprivacy for why. Published LLPs are listed on theLLP page.
Limited partnership (LP)
An LP needs at least one general partner, who manages the business and has unlimited personal liability for its debts, and at least one limited partner, who contributes capital and has liability capped at that contribution but generally can't take part in day-to-day management without risking that protection. Unlike an LLP, an LP is not a separate legal person from its partners. The same name-based publication rule as LLPs applies.Too few limited partnerships are published for a dedicated page yet.
Foreign company branch
A foreign company branch is a registered extension of a company incorporated outside Singapore, not a separate Singapore legal entity — the foreign parent company is directly liable for the branch's activities and debts. It still needs its own UEN, a registered Singapore address, and Singapore-resident authorised representatives, and it files with ACRA the same way a locally incorporated company does. See theforeign company branches page.
What's not on this site: sole proprietorships and partnerships
Sole proprietorships and general (non-limited) partnerships are also registered with ACRA, but their registered particulars belong to a natural person rather than a company, so this site doesn't publish anything about them at all — seeprivacy for exactly how that exclusion works. If you're checking a business and it isn't a Pte Ltd, public company, LLP, LP or foreign branch, it's most likely one of these two, and you'll need ACRA's own Bizfileservice to look it up.
Why the distinction matters in practice
The core question each structure answers differently is: if the business can't pay its debts, who is actually on the hook? For a Pte Ltd, a public company, or an LLP, the company or LLP itself is — shareholders and partners are shielded, subject to the usual exceptions for fraud or personal guarantees. For an LP's general partner, and for a foreign branch's parent company, liability reaches further. None of this is visible from a company name alone, which is exactly why the entity type shown on each page here is worth checking before you assume how a business is structured.