Tracing beneficial ownership through corporate shareholders
How Sekriva follows ownership chains to the natural persons behind each company, and records the verification work.
Under the Companies Act 2016 beneficial ownership (BO) framework, a company must identify and record the natural persons who ultimately own or control it. When the shareholders are people, that is easy. When they are other companies, sometimes several layers deep, it takes real work. Sekriva does the arithmetic and keeps the evidence.
Step 1: map the corporate shareholders
Each corporate shareholder is recorded as an organisation with its jurisdiction. You then record who owns it, whether people or other organisations, and their percentages. Sekriva rejects circular ownership and totals above 100%.
Any organisation whose owners have not been recorded yet is flagged as “Ownership not mapped”. Beneficial ownership cannot be resolved through it until you record its owners.
Step 2: calculate
Open a company and click Calculate. Sekriva traces direct and indirect ownership through every corporate shareholder. Indirect percentages are multiplied along each chain.
Example: Puan Aisyah owns 60% of Holding Sdn Bhd, which owns 50% of your client. Her indirect interest is 60% × 50% = 30%.
The ownership chain card shows the effective percentage through every layer. Gold badges mark people who meet the common 20% threshold of shares or voting rights. Significant control by other means also qualifies, so you can record that too.
Step 3: add and verify
- Tick any natural persons at or above the threshold who are missing from the BO records. They are added as pending verification.
- Confirm each beneficial owner. Record which control criteria they meet, the notification date and the evidence.
- Record periodic reviews as they happen.
History is kept
When someone stops being a beneficial owner, you cease the record. It is never deleted, so the register of beneficial owners keeps the full history. That register is generated from these records, just like the other statutory registers.
BO updates are also scheduled as obligations on the compliance calendar, so they do not get forgotten.
Sekriva calculates from the ownership data you enter. Deciding who is a beneficial owner, especially where control is exercised by other means, remains a professional judgement for your firm.
