Hide shell companies

Some new registrations look set up to hold something, such as property or shares, rather than to trade. You can hide these from your alerts and from your matches page. They are flagged as "likely" shells, so treat the flag as a guide and not a verdict.

Where to switch it on

• When you save a search: in the "Save this search" window, tick Exclude likely shell companies from digests. You can change it later by editing the search from the Saved Searches page.
• On your matches page: open a saved search with View matches and tick Hide shells. Untick it to see everything again.

Alerts saved from the Established Companies page and from Likely Buyers already leave likely shells out.

What gets hidden

Companies that look like holding vehicles rather than trading businesses. The company is not removed from NewcoHunter. It is simply left out of the list or email you are looking at.

Things to know

• A genuine early-stage business can occasionally be flagged. If you suspect that, untick the box and look at the company profile.
• Exports include a column marking likely shell companies, so you can filter them yourself in a spreadsheet. See What is in the export.
• This is separate from the formation-agent address filter, which is always applied to location searches and alerts. See What we filter out.

How you know it worked

The match count on your matches page goes down when you tick Hide shells, and your next alert contains fewer, more business-like names.