BvD's Oriana sails into view.(Bureau van Dijk)(database of information on companies)

Byline: Bobby Pickering.

Bureau van Dijk (BvD) is to launch a database in June of information on companies operating in the Asia-Pacific region.

The product will be called Oriana - a name that a company statement described as "evocative of eastern travel and experience". However, a spokesperson said the company was not expecting any objections to be raised by P&O Cruises, which operates the Oriana liner on the popular Far Eastern route. "It's extremely unlikely that any confusion will arise between our product and P&O's, as we're operating in such different markets," she said.

BvD's Oriana database contains information on 85,000 companies in 17 countries - from Pakistan to New Zealand - with all data sourced locally. It will include reports for companies in countries where private company information is notoriously difficult to obtain, such as China.

The company has decided to make the database available only in CD-ROM format, with online access "anticipated by the end of the year". It feels the CD format is more suited to the target Asia-Pacific market, because it "best caters for the technological environment in Asia, where many of its early users will be based". The Oriana database is, however, expected to be available online "imminently" through the global Orbis product.

Oriana will offer a standardised report ...