Subsidiary

What is a subsidiary?

A subsidiary is a company that is owned or controlled by another company, known as the parent or holding company. Control is typically established when the parent holds more than 50% of the subsidiary’s voting shares, though a parent may own a subsidiary outright. A subsidiary remains a separate legal entity from its parent, with its own name, tax obligations, and liabilities, even as it operates within the parent’s broader corporate structure.

For procurement and supplier data teams, subsidiaries are a frequent source of duplicate or fragmented vendor records, since the same corporate family can appear under multiple legal names and addresses. Mapping subsidiaries back to their parent company clarifies true supplier relationships, consolidates spend visibility, and reduces the risk of treating one supplier as several unrelated vendors.