Normally this holding company is referred to as a parent company. For a company to consider itself as a parent company to another its should hold atleast 50% of its voting stocks
A company may have more than one voting stock subscribers but can only have one parent company
Example:
Company A has the following owners each with a number of voting right as listed
Company B-10%
Company C-35%
Company D-55%
So in this case the parent company for Company A is company D
But what about in a scenario whereby none of the holding companies owns more than 50% of the voting rights, who is considered the parent company??????
Example
Company ABC has the following owners each with a number of voting right as listed
Company BDE-40%
Company CEF-35%
Comapny DGM-25%
In this scenario although Company BDE holds majority of the voting right, it cannot consider itself a parent company, unless if it obtains more voting rights from the other two stockholders.
PETRONAS, a well known and one of the largest fuel supplier in Malaysia boast a handful of companies in which it owns more than 50% of the stake( figure estimates says more than 100). SEE Petronas SUBSIDIES
