Ownership

How to find a ship's owner from its IMO number

Published 12 October 2026 · updated 13 October 2026

You can find the registered owner and the managers of most merchant ships from the IMO number, for free, in a few minutes. What you cannot find from any free source is the beneficial owner: the people or the group that finally control the ship. This page gives the steps, says what each source really shows, and marks the point where the public record stops.

First decide which owner you mean

A ship has several companies behind it, and "owner" is used for all of them. The search is different for each. Who owns a ship explains the roles in full. In short:

The first two definitions are the official ones. The IMO scheme that numbers companies defines the registered owner as "the owner specified on the ship's certificate of registry issued by an Administration", and the company as the organisation named on the ship's Document of Compliance or Safety Management Certificate under the ISM Code.

Step 1: make sure the number is an IMO number

An IMO number is seven digits and stays with the hull for life, through every change of name, flag and owner. That is why the search starts from it and not from the name. Names are shared between ships and changed often.

Check the number before you search with it. The seventh digit is a check digit worked out from the first six, so a mistyped number can be caught. The free IMO number checker on this site does the sum and, for a valid number, shows the ship it belongs to, so you can confirm you have the right hull before going further. It does not show owners or managers. The IMO number explains the check digit and why an MMSI number will not do instead.

If you have only a name, find the IMO number first. Use the flag, the type and the size to pick the right ship among those that share the name.

Step 2: look the ship up on Equasis

Equasis is a public database set up by the European Commission and the French maritime administration. It describes itself as a tool "aimed at reducing substandard shipping", limited to safety-related information, and it is free of charge to registered users. You search by IMO number.

The ship record has a section called management detail. It lists companies against the ship by role, each with an address and the date the role began. The roles you will normally see are:

• Registered owner
• ISM manager
• Ship manager or commercial manager

The same record carries the flag, the classification society, the P&I insurer, the port state control inspection history and the ship's former names and flags. For most chartering questions this one page is enough.

Three limits are worth knowing before you rely on it:

• It is not a beneficial ownership register. Some records show a group or beneficial owner entry and many do not. Where one is shown, it is a company name supplied by a data provider, not a legal finding about who controls the ship.
• It does not give e-mail addresses. You get a company name and a postal address. Finding the chartering desk is a separate job.
• It is for looking up one ship at a time. Equasis says bulk or automated downloading and reproduction for commercial purposes are strictly forbidden. In our own use, an account was limited to roughly 78 ships in a seven day period.

Step 3: cross-check with the IMO's own records

The IMO numbers themselves are issued by S&P Global on behalf of the IMO. S&P Global says that both Equasis and the IMO's own GISIS site are supplied with weekly updates from its databases. So the two free sources share one origin. Agreement between them confirms you read the record correctly. It is not two independent witnesses.

• IMO GISIS. The IMO's Global Integrated Shipping Information System has a ship and company particulars module, which needs a free public account. S&P Global names it, with Equasis, as a place where an IMO ship number can be checked. We could not read its fields without an account while writing this page, so we describe it as a cross-check and not as a first source.
• The IMO company number. Each registered owner and each ISM company has its own seven digit number, which stays the same when the company changes its name. S&P Global runs a free site where a company number can be searched one company at a time. Use the number, not the name, to see whether two ships really share an owner. Company names are spelled many ways.

Step 4: go to the flag registry for the legal owner

If you need the owner as a matter of law, for a sale, a claim or an arrest, the only primary record is the ship's registry in its flag state. The flag is on the Equasis record.

Many registries will issue a transcript of the register for one ship, for a fee. The UK Ship Register, for example, describes its register as public and sells current and historic transcripts. A transcript shows the registered owner as the registry holds it, and commonly any registered mortgages. Access differs from flag to flag, so ask the registry what it will issue and to whom. Flag states and open registries explains how the registries differ.

There is also a document on board. SOLAS requires every ship to carry a Continuous Synopsis Record, a history of its flag, name, registered owner and managing company, with their IMO numbers. It is not public, but an owner or manager can supply a copy, and a buyer or a charterer with a reason can ask for it.

What you still will not have: the beneficial owner

The registered owner is nearly always a company formed to hold one ship. Its name tells you almost nothing. The question people usually mean, who is really behind this ship, is the beneficial owner, and no public source answers it reliably.

• A ship registry records the registered owner. It does not record who owns that company.
• The company's own country may or may not publish its shareholders. Many ship-owning companies are formed in places that do not.
• Paid fleet databases publish a group owner field. That is the data company's own research. It can be very good, and it is still not a registry entry or a legal record.

So be precise about what you found. "Registered owner per the flag registry" is a fact. "Managed by" is a fact from the safety certificates. "Believed to be controlled by" is an inference, and should be written as one. This matters most for sanctions and due diligence checks, where a group name copied from a free website is not evidence.

What does not work

• AIS and ship tracking sites. The AIS signal carries the ship's name, numbers, position and destination. It carries nothing about who owns or manages it. Where a tracking site shows an owner, it has bought that field from a database.
• Searching by name. Without the IMO number you will often find the wrong ship, or a previous one of the same name. Ship names and renaming shows how often.
• Bulk lists of registered owners. Nobody sells one. In the register behind this site, 88,145 of 101,900 ships still have no researched registered owner, and we say so on each record.

The short version

1. Confirm the seven digits with the IMO number checker.
2. Look the ship up on Equasis. Read the management detail by role.
3. If you want someone to write to about a cargo, use the commercial manager, then the ISM manager.
4. If you need the legal owner, order a transcript from the flag registry.
5. If you need the beneficial owner, expect research, not a lookup, and label the result as an inference.

This page describes public sources as we read and used them on 12 October 2026. It is not legal advice, and a registry transcript, not a website, is what a court or a bank will ask for.

References

• IMO, IMO identification number schemes, read 12 October 2026. imo.org
• S&P Global, IMO Number Requests: About the ship, company and registered owner numbering schemes, read 12 October 2026. imonumbers.ihs.com
• S&P Global, Unique Registered Owner and Company Identification Number Scheme: permitted use of numbers, read 12 October 2026. imonumbers.ihs.com
• Equasis, About Equasis, read 12 October 2026. equasis.org
• IMO, Global Integrated Shipping Information System (GISIS). gisis.imo.org
• UK Ship Register, Transcripts of registry. ukshipregister.co.uk

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