Corporate management for groups of companies
Sttok manages the shareholder register, general meetings, board of directors and corporate documents of every company in a group from a single login. It records the cross-shareholdings between them and consolidates who controls what at the end of the chain. Sttok customers manage an average of two companies each.
Corporate work doesn't add up. It multiplies.
A group of twelve companies doesn't have twelve times the work of one. It has more.
Each company keeps its own register, holds its own general meeting, approves its accounts and renews its officers. That is already twelve calendars. On top of that there are shareholdings of some companies in others, chains of control three and four levels deep, powers of attorney granted by one company that expire without anyone noticing, and a question that arrives every few months from a bank, a notary or an auditor: who is the beneficial owner at the end of all this.
The usual structure of an established group is a holding company that brings the shareholders together, an operating parent company in which it holds a stake, and a varying number of subsidiaries. Osborne works this way. Rebuilding that structure every time someone asks for it is manual work that keeps repeating.
What is called entity management
Outside Spain this category has its own name: entity management or legal entity management. It is the centralised management of a group's companies, their governing bodies, their officers and their documents.
Sttok covers that ground under Spanish corporate law, without separating the entity side from the shareholder side. The same platform keeps the holding company's shareholder register and the subsidiary's board calendar.
Situations it handles
One register per company, a single source
Each company in the group has its shareholder register or its register of registered shares, with its numbering and its classes. Sttok keeps all of them, and when one group company holds shares in another, the holding appears in both places without duplicating the data. How each register is kept and legalised is in the guide to the shareholder register (in Spanish).
Who controls what at the end of the chain
A subsidiary 60% owned by the parent, which in turn is 80% owned by the holding company, which has forty family shareholders. Sttok calculates ultimate ownership across the whole chain, which is what you need to answer when the question comes from a bank, a notary or the Spanish Register of Beneficial Ownership. The legal criteria and filing deadlines are in the guide to beneficial ownership in corporate groups (in Spanish).
The corporate calendar of twelve companies
Preparation of the accounts, annual general meeting, approval, filing. Multiplied by each company. Sttok keeps each company's calendar and the related documents, so the status of all twelve is visible at once, not company by company.
Boards of directors in parallel
Notice, agenda, documents, attendance, resolutions and minutes. Sttok manages the full cycle in every company that has a board, with the history of resolutions available per company. There is a comparison of board portals in Spain (in Spanish).
Officers and powers of attorney
Who is a director of which company, since when and until when. Directorships expire, and so do powers of attorney. Sttok records each company's governing body and the term of each appointment.
A company joins or leaves the group
An acquisition, a merger, the incorporation of a new subsidiary. The company is added to the platform with its history and becomes part of the structure, without setting up a separate process.
Due diligence and audit
When someone asks for the group's corporate documents, they are asking for deeds, registers, minutes and certificates from a number of companies that is rarely one. Sttok keeps them organised by company and by transaction.
When the group operates in several countries
Sttok manages companies of groups with a presence in Latin America and Andorra. The platform works the same with a shareholder register, a general assembly of shareholders, a board of directors or a directorio as with their Spanish equivalents.
The product is built on Spanish corporate law. Compliance with each country's rules is assessed case by case.
Today vs with Sttok
| Today | With Sttok | |
|---|---|---|
| Group registers | One spreadsheet per company, in different folders | Every register in one login, with the structure between companies |
| Cross-shareholdings | An organisation chart in PowerPoint rebuilt every year | A live structure, updated with each transaction |
| Beneficial ownership | Rebuilt by hand every time someone asks | Calculated across the whole chain |
| Corporate calendar | Twelve calendars, one per company | The status of every company at once |
| Officers and powers | You find out they expired when you need to use them | Terms recorded per company |
| Due diligence | Weeks gathering documents from each subsidiary | Documents organised by company and transaction |
Frequently asked questions
Does each company have to be set up separately? Each company has its own register and governing bodies, because legally they are separate. What is shared is the login, the structure between them and the consolidated view.
How is it recorded that one group company holds shares in another? As a shareholder, just like an individual. That makes it possible to follow the chain upwards and calculate ultimate ownership without building it by hand.
Does it work for a holding company with many family shareholders? Yes, and it is one of the most common combinations. The holding company is managed like any company with a broad shareholder base, with its inheritances, co-ownerships and usufructs, and the rest of the group is followed from there. See the solution for family businesses.
Do the directors of each subsidiary only have access to their own? Permissions are set per company, so each person sees the scope that applies to them.
What about companies outside Spain? They are managed on the platform with the names of their governing bodies. Specific regulatory coverage for each country is assessed case by case.
How long does it take to load a whole group? Setup takes a few hours per company. Large groups are planned company by company.
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More than 250 customers manage more than 500 companies with Sttok, with more than 250,000 shareholders and more than €20 billion in equity.