Announcing Who Controls It: a proof-of-concept beneficial ownership register

Beneficial Ownership is a terrible expression. Outside of the NGO and anti-money-laundering community, nobody knows what it means, or why it's important. In fact the UK now refers to this information as Persons of Significant Control, which is another bit of jargon, but does a slightly better job of explaining what we mean – which … Continue reading Announcing Who Controls It: a proof-of-concept beneficial ownership register →

Understanding corporate networks. Part 4: how we record the data

In parts 1, 2 and 3 of this series, we explored the complex world of corporate control, and how it is described in various regulations. We found that a company may control other companies in many different ways, from majority and minority share holdings to contractual relationships. At OpenCorporates we believe corporate control data is the cornerstone of a … Continue reading Understanding corporate networks. Part 4: how we record the data →

Understanding corporate networks. Part 3: where’s the data?

What is a subsidiary? What do we mean by control? In Part 2 of this series on understanding corporate networks, I explored these questions and how they are answered by regulatory regimes around the world. It's one thing to define "control" in the regulations and accounting standards; however, without disclosure, we can't begin to map corporate … Continue reading Understanding corporate networks. Part 3: where’s the data? →

Understanding corporate networks. Part 2: Control without voting

In Part 1 of this series, I examined how companies can be controlled using the voting rights attached to shares. For example, this corporate network graph of Pearson New Zealand Limited is underpinned by a series of several underlying statements, most of which are about shares. You'll see that in addition to shareholdings, we list another type of … Continue reading Understanding corporate networks. Part 2: Control without voting →

Understanding corporate networks. Part 1: Control via equity

What is a corporate network? Is it the same as a corporate hierarchy, company tree, or a conglomerate? What do we really mean when we talk about 'Barclays', 'IBM' or 'BP'? As we've explained previously, a modern corporation (even a small one) is actually a complex network of related legal entities connected together in a … Continue reading Understanding corporate networks. Part 1: Control via equity →

Announcing open corporate network data: not just good, but better

We've often heard company hierarchies and networks referred to as the Holy Grail of business information. That's not just a recognition of the value and importance of this data. It's also that it's really difficult to find... and to collect, and to make usable too. What's more, where this does exist as a dataset it's … Continue reading Announcing open corporate network data: not just good, but better →