How to Show a Holding Company and Its Regulated Subsidiary on an Org Chart
Draw a holding-company chain and the regulated company beneath it: label each layer, place its activities, financing and estates companies, mark a joint venture and check the chart against a filing.
A holding-company chart shows who owns the licensed company that does the regulated work, which layers are only holding vehicles, and which lines mean ownership rather than management.
The short version
- Draw the chain from the listed parent to the licensed company, one box for each layer.
- Label every box by its role: listed parent, intermediate holding company or regulated company.
- Put the licensed company's activities beneath it, and its financing and estates companies beside them.
- Write the stake on every box that is not wholly owned, and use a dotted line where control is shared.
- Check the chart against a process such as a regulatory filing, so each step has an owner on the right layer.
Ownership lines and operating lines are different things
A regulated company, such as a water utility, usually sits inside a group. The listed company at the top owns it through one or more holding companies, and those holding companies supply no water, serve no customers and run no operating teams. If every box is joined with the same line, a reader cannot tell which boxes own, which raise money and which operate.
Draw the chain first, from the listed parent down to the company that holds the licence, and label each layer for what it is: listed parent, intermediate holding company, regulated company. Then place the licensed company's own activities beneath it, and its financing vehicle, estates company and joint venture beside them, with each stake written on the box. Use a solid line where a company owns a subsidiary and a dotted line where control is shared.
The chart below is the editable United Utilities chart, built from the group structure chart in its 2026 annual report: one listed parent, two intermediate holding companies, one licensed company and a half-owned business retailer. A second chart, a regulatory filing process, shows why the layers matter: a filing is made by the licensed company, so its steps need owners on that layer, not on a holding company above it.
Build a holding-company chain in four stages
Watch the United Utilities chart grow from the ownership chain to the licensed company, its activities and a half-owned business retailer.
Start with the ownership chain
Draw the listed parent and then each holding company down to the company that holds the licence. United Utilities Group PLC owns United Utilities PLC, which owns United Utilities North West Limited, which owns United Utilities Water Limited. Each layer is labeled for what it is, so nobody mistakes a holding company for an operating team.
Add what the licensed company does
Beneath United Utilities Water Limited go its five core activities: water resources, water network and treatment, wastewater network and treatment, bioresources and customer services. They hang from the licensed company, not from the holding layers above it, because the licensed company is the one that carries them out.
Add the financing and estates companies
United Utilities Water Finance PLC raises debt for the water company and Lingley Mere Management Company Limited manages an estate, with its 74% stake written on the box. Both hang from the licensed company because it owns them, but their subtitles say what they are so nobody reads them as operating teams.
Mark the half-owned retailer with a dotted line
Water Plus Group Limited, a business retailer owned 50% and held by United Utilities PLC, joins with a dotted line because control is shared with another water group. The dotted line is the signal that this box sits outside the chain of wholly owned subsidiaries.
United Utilities Group PLC Organizational Structure & Org Chart
Check the layers against a real process: a regulatory filing
A licensed company has to make filings under its own licence. Here is a regulatory filing process built in three stages, so you can check that each step has an owner on the right layer of the chart.
Write the steps and decisions
Start with the first half of the filing as plain steps and decisions: identify the trigger, log the obligation, collect the evidence, compile the draft and review it. At this point nobody owns a step, which is the gap the holding-company chart helps to close.
Give each step an owner on the licensed company's layer
Now give each step a lane for a role at the licensed company, such as the business owner or the regulatory lead, instead of a role at the listed parent. If a step needs someone only the holding company has, either the chart or the process places the work on the wrong layer.
Complete the process with its handoffs
The full process adds certification by an authorised signatory and submission to the authority. Check that the signatory is a role of the company that makes the filing, and that the chart shows which company that is and what sits above it.
How it works
Start with the listed parent
Put the listed company at the top and label it as the listed parent. Use the group's own published structure chart as your source, and write its date next to your chart.
Add each holding company in order
Add every intermediate holding company between the parent and the licensed company, in the order the group's structure chart shows them. Label each as a holding company so readers know it has no operating teams.
Add the licensed company
Add the company that holds the licence and label it as the regulated company. It is the box the regulator deals with, so it should be easy to find.
Place its activities beneath it
Add the activities the company itself lists, such as water resources or customer services, beneath the licensed company. Keep them as activities, not as separate legal entities.
Add financing and estates companies
Add the financing vehicle and any estates or property company that the licensed company owns, and write the stake on each box that is not wholly owned.
Mark shared control with a dotted line
Connect a joint venture to the company that holds it with a dotted line and write the share. A dotted line tells the reader that the box is not one of the wholly owned subsidiaries.
Check it against a process
Open a process such as a regulatory filing and give each step a lane that matches a role at the licensed company. Fix gaps in the chart or in the process.
Mistakes to avoid
Drawing holding companies as departments
A holding company has no operating team. Label it as a holding layer, and keep the departments and activities under the company that carries them out.
Using one line for ownership and management
A solid line from a parent to a subsidiary means ownership, not that the parent's staff manage the subsidiary's staff. Put management reporting on a people chart.
Leaving out the stake
A box with no percentage reads as wholly owned. Write the share on every box the group does not own outright.
Treating the chart as a legal register
A group can have dozens of dormant or legacy companies. Draw the ones a reader needs to follow the chain, and say that the chart is a view, not a list of every entity.
Editable organizational charts
Create your holding-company chart
Open the editable United Utilities chart, replace the names with your own group and activities, and change the line style where control is shared.
Related guides
Frequently asked questions
What is a holding company on an org chart?
It is a company that owns shares in other companies and has no operating teams of its own. Draw it as a layer in the ownership chain, labeled as a holding company, not as a department.
Should the shareholders appear above the listed parent?
Only if readers need them. For a listed group the parent is usually the top box. For a private group the owners are often the point, so put them at the top and join them to the group with a dotted ownership line.
Does a solid line mean the parent manages the subsidiary?
No. On this kind of chart a solid line means one company owns the next. Who manages whom is a separate relationship that belongs on a people chart.
Where should a financing company go?
Beneath the company that owns it, labeled as a financing company. It exists to raise money for the licensed company, so give it a subtitle that says so.