{ "model": { "rank": 7031, "code": "thing-q219577", "model_id": "vr.tr.holding-company", "name": "holding company", "purpose": "Let an agent explain what a holding company is and why groups use them, relay corporate, competition, banking and tax rules in general terms, help identify group structures from public registers, and route legal and tax advice to professionals.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Society, people and institutions", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "SOC", "domain": "SOC.ORG", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q219577/", "tier": 2, "score": 57, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "Regional Bell Operating Company", "patent holding company", "media conglomerate", "Intermediate holding company", "broadcasting holding company", "Ventariom Global", "JW Group", "associated company", "bank holding company", "activities of holding companies", "sociedade gestora de participações sociais", "Famous Brands", "agroholding", "Boryszew", "NKP's newspapers", "Insurance holding company", "Japanese bank holding company", "Financial Instruments Exchange Holding Company" ], "aliasCount": 18, "merged": 18, "knownIn": 57, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": null, "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q219577", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q219577", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-12T19:59:28Z", "providers": [ "Claude" ], "breadth": "written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify", "pass": 2, "wave": 3, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q219577", "registryId": "vr.tr.holding-company", "name": "holding company", "version": "0.2.0-wave.3", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "SOC.ORG" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q219577/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.holding-company", "name": "holding company", "purpose": "Let an agent explain what a holding company is and why groups use them, relay corporate, competition, banking and tax rules in general terms, help identify group structures from public registers, and route legal and tax advice to professionals.", "definition": "A company whose main business is owning shares or other controlling interests in other companies, its subsidiaries, rather than producing goods or services itself; holding companies are used to control groups, separate liabilities, manage assets and taxes, and are regulated in banking, insurance, media and competition law.", "what_it_is_for": "Owning and controlling other companies.", "affordances": [ "explain the structure and purposes", "identify parents and subsidiaries from registers", "relay regulatory rules by sector in general terms", "route structuring and tax advice to professionals" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Control through shareholdings", "Group structure with subsidiaries", "Consolidated accounts", "Sector-specific regulation for banks, insurers and media" ], "appearance": "Not a physical object; seen in company registers, group charts and accounts.", "visual_identification": [ "Owns controlling stakes in subsidiaries", "Little or no operating business of its own", "An operating company, a fund and a trust are different vehicles" ], "physical_properties": [], "families_and_kinds": [ "pure holding companies", "mixed holding companies with operations", "intermediate holding companies", "financial and bank holding companies", "patent and intellectual property holding companies", "personal and family holding companies" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "company", "why": "a legal entity" }, { "relation": "controls", "target": "subsidiary", "why": "the companies it owns" }, { "relation": "is part of", "target": "corporate group", "why": "the group structure" }, { "relation": "is regulated by", "target": "company law", "why": "and sector regulation" } ], "identifiers": [ { "scheme": "company registration number", "value_or_pattern": "per register", "note": "" }, { "scheme": "LEI", "value_or_pattern": "20 characters", "note": "legal entity identifier" } ], "standards_and_regulation": [ "Company law on groups and consolidated accounts", "Bank and insurance holding company regulation", "Competition and merger control law", "Tax rules on participation exemption and transfer pricing", "Beneficial ownership transparency rules" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Opaque structures used to hide ownership", "Liability shielding disputes and veil piercing", "Tax avoidance controversies", "Agents giving legal or tax advice" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "structure", "name": "Structure", "description": "What a holding company is.", "rationale": "Definition.", "layers": [ { "id": "definition", "name": "Definition", "description": "Definition.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-finding", "name": "Definition", "description": "Definition.", "questions": [ { "text": "What is a holding company, and how does it control subsidiaries?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Is the entity a holding company, an operating company, a fund or a trust?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "purposes", "name": "Purposes", "description": "Why groups use them.", "findings": [ { "id": "purposes-finding", "name": "Purposes", "description": "Purposes.", "questions": [ { "text": "Why do groups use holding companies for control, liability, financing and tax?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Is the user asking how to structure their own business, which needs a professional?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "identify", "name": "Identify", "description": "Finding group structures.", "rationale": "Registers.", "layers": [ { "id": "registers", "name": "Registers", "description": "Company registers.", "findings": [ { "id": "registers-finding", "name": "Registers", "description": "Registers.", "questions": [ { "text": "How can parents, subsidiaries and beneficial owners be found in public registers?", "kind": "action" }, { "text": "Which register covers the jurisdiction?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "accounts", "name": "Accounts", "description": "Consolidated accounts.", "findings": [ { "id": "accounts-finding", "name": "Accounts", "description": "Accounts.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do consolidated accounts present a group, and what do they reveal?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits financial reporting?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "rules", "name": "Rules", "description": "Regulation.", "rationale": "Regulation.", "layers": [ { "id": "sector", "name": "Sector", "description": "Sector rules.", "findings": [ { "id": "sector-finding", "name": "Sector", "description": "Sector.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which rules apply to bank, insurance and media holding companies, in general terms?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits financial regulation?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "competition", "name": "Competition and tax", "description": "Competition and tax.", "findings": [ { "id": "competition-finding", "name": "Competition", "description": "Competition.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do merger control, competition and tax rules treat holding structures, in general terms?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is the user asking for tax advice, which needs a professional?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "context", "name": "Context", "description": "History and debate.", "rationale": "Context.", "layers": [ { "id": "history", "name": "History", "description": "History.", "findings": [ { "id": "history-finding", "name": "History", "description": "History.", "questions": [ { "text": "How did holding companies develop, including trusts and conglomerates?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which references are standard?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "debate", "name": "Debate", "description": "Controversies.", "findings": [ { "id": "debate-finding", "name": "Debate", "description": "Debate.", "questions": [ { "text": "What controversies surround holding structures, such as opacity and tax, with positions attributed?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is the presentation neutral?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should sector holding companies be separate entries?", "How should company registers be linked by country?", "The registry entry has merged aliases naming specific companies and conglomerates; should they be split off?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "organisation or institution", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a holding company, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent explain what a holding company is and why groups use them, relay corporate, competition, banking and tax rules in general terms, help identify group structures from public registers, and route legal and tax advice to professionals.", "characteristics": { "substance": "social", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "collective" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "observed and measured" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: Regional Bell Operating Company, patent holding company, media conglomerate, Intermediate holding company, broadcasting holding company, Ventariom Global, JW Group, associated company, bank holding company, activities of holding companies, sociedade gestora de participações sociais, Famous Brands.", "18 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 57 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a holding company, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "a social arrangement between people", "physicalCharacter": [ "Acts through people, and only through them.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "observe it, measure it, record its state" ], "howItIsRecognised": [ "Nothing to see. Recognised by name, register entry and the people acting in its name, and those change while it stays the same body." ], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "Regional Bell Operating Company", "patent holding company", "media conglomerate", "Intermediate holding company", "broadcasting holding company", "Ventariom Global", "JW Group", "associated company", "bank holding company", "activities of holding companies", "sociedade gestora de participações sociais", "Famous Brands" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 57 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 18 finer distinctions are held inside this entry as names rather than as separate models.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one holding company from another, and a holding company from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a holding company, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a holding company, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a holding company is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a holding company, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a holding company, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a holding company is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a holding company sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a holding company, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a holding company, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a holding company is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a holding company from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a holding company, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a holding company, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a holding company is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a holding company passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a holding company between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a holding company, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a holding company, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a holding company is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a holding company, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a holding company is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a holding company, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a holding company, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a holding company is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "people-and-responsibility", "name": "People, roles and responsibility", "description": "Who stands in what relation to a holding company.", "rationale": "Social things are defined by the relations people hold to them, and those relations change without the thing changing.", "layers": [ { "id": "roles-and-parties", "name": "Roles and parties", "description": "The roles that exist around a holding company and who fills them.", "findings": [ { "id": "role-assignments", "name": "Role assignments and their validity", "description": "Who holds which role over a holding company, from when, and on whose authority.", "questions": [ { "id": "role-assignments-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a role over a holding company, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "role-assignments-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a role over a holding company, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "role-assignments-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a role over a holding company is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "ownership-and-accountability", "name": "Ownership and accountability", "description": "Who answers for a holding company and who may decide about it.", "findings": [ { "id": "accountability", "name": "Accountability and decision rights", "description": "Where responsibility for a holding company sits when something goes wrong.", "questions": [ { "id": "accountability-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes responsibility for a holding company, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "accountability-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about responsibility for a holding company, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "accountability-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once responsibility for a holding company is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "legal-identity", "name": "Legal identity and mandate", "description": "What holding company is in law and what it exists to do.", "rationale": "Legal identity survives changes of name, address, staff and premises, which is exactly why it must be recorded separately from all of them.", "layers": [ { "id": "registration", "name": "Legal form and registration", "description": "Form, register, identifiers and jurisdiction.", "findings": [ { "id": "registration-record", "name": "Registration and identifiers", "description": "What names this body unambiguously in law.", "questions": [ { "id": "registration-record-q01", "text": "What legal form does holding company take, in which register, under which identifier?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "registration-record-q02", "text": "What survives a rename, a merger or a move of premises, and what does not?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "mandate", "name": "Mandate and governing instrument", "description": "The purpose it is bound to and the document that binds it.", "findings": [ { "id": "mandate-record", "name": "Mandate and its source", "description": "What it may do, and the instrument that says so.", "questions": [ { "id": "mandate-record-q01", "text": "What is the mandate of holding company, and which founding or governing instrument grants it?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "id": "mandate-record-q02", "text": "What lies outside the mandate, and what should an agent do when asked for it?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "governance-and-membership", "name": "Governance, membership and decision rights", "description": "Who decides in holding company and who belongs to it.", "rationale": "Authority inside an organisation is held by roles, not people, and an agent needs to know which role can commit it.", "layers": [ { "id": "decision-rights", "name": "Decision rights", "description": "Bodies, offices and what each may bind.", "findings": [ { "id": "authority-map", "name": "Who may bind the organisation", "description": "The offices that can commit it and their limits.", "questions": [ { "id": "authority-map-q01", "text": "Which bodies or offices of holding company may take which decisions, and up to what limit?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "authority-map-q02", "text": "What evidence shows that a given person currently holds that office?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "membership", "name": "Membership and affiliation", "description": "Who counts as part of it and on what terms.", "findings": [ { "id": "membership-rules", "name": "Membership and its evidence", "description": "Classes of member, how membership starts and ends.", "questions": [ { "id": "membership-rules-q01", "text": "What kinds of membership or affiliation does holding company have, and how does each begin and end?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "membership-rules-q02", "text": "What may a member do in its name, and what may they not?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a holding company came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a holding company and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a holding company, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a holding company, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a holding company is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a holding company is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a holding company, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a holding company, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a holding company is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 6, "layers": 12, "findings": 14, "questions": 38 } } } }