LibGuides: Company Research : Subsidiaries

What is a Subsidiary?

A subsidiary is a partially or wholly-owned company whose "parent" is a majority shareholder (i.e. controls more than 50% of voting stock). In contrast, an affiliate company is one whose parent owns a minority stake in the company. Wholly-owned subsidiaries are created through acquisition by, or spin-off from, the parent company.

Finding Subsidiaries - Print/CD ROM Collection

LexisNexis corporate affiliations. by LexisNexis Group
Call Number: HG 4057 A22 Bronfman Reference
Directory of U.S. and international public and private companies. Identifies subsidiaries and branches.
Inter-corporate ownership. by Statistics Canada. Industrial Organization and Finance Division.
Call Number: HD 2807 A193 CD-ROM Bronfman Circulation
Canada's premier resource on corporate ownership, there's no quicker or easier way to get a more complete picture of the structure of Canadian business. Face the challenging business world of tomorrow equipped with over 95,000 Canadian and foreign-owned company listings built in to one resource.

You'll discover:
- their interlocking relationships
- how they fit into the company hierarchy
- to which industry they belong
- in which province the head office is located
- and much, much more
D&B million dollar directory. by Dun & Bradstreet Canada
Call Number: HC 102 M5 Bronfman Reference
Includes basic information for both public and private American companies.

Finding Subsidiaries: Online Sources

Mergent Online
Type company name or symbol in the Company Search box > Select the appropriate company > Under the Company Details tab, click Subsidiaries > Click the plus sign beside "+Subsidiaries" to view results. Determine if a company is a subsidiary or not by using Advanced Search mode. Select Corporate Information > Select "+Subsidiary". Then type in the name of the company in the box labelled "contains".

The following resources provide a list of a company's subsidiaries:

Nexis Uni
Find subsidiaries, branches, divisions and joint ventures. Type company name or ticker under Get Company Info > Click Go > Select appropriate company. On the left panel, click Company Hierarchy > Click the plus sign (+) to view details and select subsidiaries for the corresponding company.
Marketline Advantage
Type company name > Select Companies from drop-down list > Click Search > Select appropriate company from results list > From the right panel, under Table of Contents, select Locations and Subsidiaries.
Bloomberg
Once in Bloomberg, get into the company first and then type CAST in the upper left corner to view Company Structures.
Hoovers
Allows you to screen companies which have subsidiary status and meet one or more other criteria. From the Hoovers home page > Go to Build a List options > Click on View More Criteria > Click on Company Information > Under Subsidiary Status click on Subsidiary radio button > Apply this and other criteria as relevant to identify subsidiary companies within an industry or that meet other criteria you apply when screening companies. Take a look at our guide to learn how to create lists of companies.
EDGAR
Type company name or ticker number in the search box > Select the appropriate company > Under File Type, type 10-K to view all reports > Select document to view the appropriate date of the 10-K report > A list of subsidiaries must be disclosed to the SEC as Exhibit 21 on Form 10-K.

Research Tip

When looking for financials, it is best to determine the name of the parent company when researching a subsidiary firm. Financials are more readily available for parent companies. Most databases listed here allow you to search by subsidiary company name to determine the name of the parent company.