Perspectives · Company law and registers
What a structure chart should show
A structure chart is a diagram of a group: the entities in it, how they own one another and who sits at the top. Banks ask for one at onboarding, investors in due diligence and auditors every year. Many are drawn by hand, and go out of date as soon as ownership changes. This perspective is general information, not legal advice.
Week 44, published 10 November 2026 · Company law and registers
The definition
A picture of who owns whom
At its simplest a structure chart is a set of boxes and lines. Each box is a legal entity or a person; each line is an ownership interest, usually labelled with a percentage. Read from the bottom up, it shows how any entity in the group connects to its ultimate owners.
GLEIF uses the same idea in its Level 2 data, which it describes as answering the question of who owns whom. Entities with an LEI report their direct and ultimate accounting consolidating parents.
The essentials
What every chart needs
Every entity's full legal name, its jurisdiction and its type. Every ownership line with its percentage, taken from the register of members, which section 113 of the Companies Act 2006 requires each company to keep with the shares each member holds.
And a date. A chart without an as at date cannot be checked, because nobody can tell which transfers it already reflects.
The control layer
Ownership is not always control
Companies House guidance describes a person with significant control as usually someone with more than 25% of the shares or voting rights, the power to appoint or remove a majority of the directors, or other influence or control. Ownership percentages on a chart answer the first test, not the others.
Where voting rights differ from economic ownership, or where someone controls the board without a majority of the shares, a useful chart says so. Banks and investors reviewing the chart for beneficial ownership will ask.
The checks
Signs a chart is wrong
The ownership of each entity should add up to 100%. A total over 100% usually means a transfer was recorded without the matching disposal; a total under 100% means an owner is missing. Either is worth fixing before the chart leaves the building.
A chart that disagrees with the registers it was drawn from is worse than no chart, because it will be relied on.
In Alethia
Charts drawn from the record
Alethia draws structure charts from the ownership recorded on each entity, with an as at date, grouping by jurisdiction and ownership percentages on each line. It flags an entity whose recorded ownership is over or under 100%, and charts can be exported as PDF, PNG or SVG.
Questions
Structure charts, answered
Who asks for a structure chart?
Banks opening accounts, investors in due diligence, auditors, lenders and regulators. Each usually wants it accurate on a stated date.
Should a chart show people as well as companies?
Usually yes, at the top, where the ownership chain ends. For UK companies, the people with significant control recorded at Companies House are a useful cross check.
How often should a chart be updated?
Whenever ownership changes. A chart drawn from the ownership record is current as long as the record is.
Draw the chart from the record
Record ownership on each entity once, and produce a dated chart whenever a bank, investor or auditor asks for one.