Location·FindingNo link

Companies that move their registered office are no more likely to change their name

Companies with a move of the registered office were no more likely to have a change of name within nine months than similar companies: 0.86% against 0.79%. Both measurements rule out a link of 1.4 times or more.

New company name within nine months of the event

Both measurements combined · 39,625 companies

After a move of the registered office0.86%

Similar companies0.79%

1.1×

No meaningful difference from similar companies.

95% interval: 0.98× to 1.2×
Companies: 39,625
Measurements: 2, independent

Source: Hunch Lab, cohort study of 1,141,228 Belgian companies. Compared within sector, size and age, with companies active in the same period.hunchleads.com/en/lab

Does it hold up?

Each measurement uses different companies and a different period. A link only counts if it shows up in both.

Measurement	Period	With the event	Similar	Factor
Measurement 1	event Feb–Jun 2025, outcome Jul 2025–Mar 2026	0.89%	0.80%	1.1×
Measurement 2	event Jul–Dec 2025, outcome Jan–Sep 2026	0.84%	0.78%	1.1×

How often does this happen?

Belgian companies with the event, per month, over the last twelve complete months.

Registered office move3,570 a month on average

New company name548 a month on average

More on registered office move

4 other findings

FindingWith the eventSimilarFactorResult

Companies that move their registered office are less likely to go through a merger or demergerLocation0.33%1.48%0.22×Less often Companies that move their registered office are almost three times as likely to be dissolved or put into liquidationLocation1.35%0.50%2.7×Confirmed Companies that move their registered office are twice as likely to go bankruptLocation0.83%0.41%2.0×Confirmed Companies that move their registered office are no more likely to change the purpose in their articlesLocation0.78%0.77%1.0×No link

Technical note

Methodology

Design: Retrospective cohort study
Population studied: 1,141,228 Belgian companies (the full business register)
Comparison group: Companies without the event that had another publication or event in the same entry period (active group), from the same stratum: NACE section, size class and age class; indirect standardisation
Cohorts: event Feb–Jun 2025, outcome Jul 2025–Mar 2026; event Jul–Dec 2025, outcome Jan–Sep 2026
Observed and expected: 342 cases, 313 expected
Factor (95% interval): 1.1× (0.98× to 1.2×)
Multiple testing: q = 0.31 (Benjamini-Hochberg)
Second measurement: p = 0.32
Other comparison groups: economically active companies 1.3× (1.2× to 1.5×); all companies 1.8× (1.6× to 2.0×)
Absolute difference: 0.1 percentage points; following 1,359 companies with the event yields one extra case
Size of the groups: active 120,261, economically active 370,738, all 1,141,228 companies
Strata: 131 strata of at least 300 companies (section × size × age; smaller strata merged)
Data up to: September 2026

Cite this findingFree to reuse with attribution (CC BY 4.0).

Hunch Lab (2026). Companies that move their registered office are no more likely to change their name. Data up to September 2026. https://hunchleads.com/en/lab/zetelverplaatsing-naamswijziging

Figures for this finding (CSV)

About Hunch Lab

Hunch Lab is the research programme of Hunch. Every finding is free to reuse with attribution. Questions are welcome.

About the Lab and the data →What Hunch does →