Cognised existence: Corporate ownership is the web of control relationships that connects natural persons and legal entities to the enterprises they own, govern, or benefit from. It is a directed graph — not a flat table — where chains of ownership can run through multiple intermediate companies before reaching a beneficial owner.
Question: Who owns, controls, or governs a firm?
What is Ownership and Governance?
Ownership and governance are not single attributes. They form a layered graph of legal ownership (who the registered owner is), beneficial ownership (who ultimately controls or benefits), capital relationships, and governance (who manages and makes decisions). Many regulatory frameworks distinguish these layers explicitly, and business registries often model them as separate entity types.
Realisations
Instead of hardcoding implementation schemas here, SPHERE separates semantic meaning from dataset implementation. See the following realisations for how to access this data:
Why Only One Realisation?
Corporate ownership in Denmark is a legally defined relationship recorded exclusively in CVR by Erhvervsstyrelsen. Unlike addresses or buildings, there is no alternative data source that independently records who owns Danish companies. OSM does not capture ownership. DST publishes aggregated firm demographics but not ownership chains.
The EU Business Registers Interconnection System (BRIS) may eventually provide cross-border ownership data, but it is not yet integrated into the Danish data landscape.
Classical Theme References
| Standard | Theme | Link |
|---|---|---|
| INSPIRE | Production and Industrial Facilities | |Production and Industrial Facilities |