Create an ownership structure chart
Build your ownership structure directly in the diagram. Planvik automatically flags the beneficial owners (over 25%).
When a company applies for a loan, the bank wants to know who really owns it. For that it asks for an ownership structure, often called an org chart: a visual overview of which shareholders hold which shares and who stands behind it all as a natural person.
Why the bank needs this. The German Anti-Money-Laundering Act requires banks to identify and verify the beneficial owners before entering any business relationship (Section 10 and Section 11 GwG). They need to know which natural person stands behind the company and controls it. The aim is to prevent money laundering, terrorist financing and the concealment of ownership. Without this information the bank may not open the business relationship or pay out the loan.
The shareholder list itself is filed with the commercial register and can be viewed there. How the bank handles it varies: some pull the list straight from the register, others ask you for a prepared ownership structure down to the natural person, sometimes signed. The register, however, only shows the direct shareholders, not the beneficial owners worked out across several levels. That overview is exactly what you build here in minutes.
With Planvik you build this overview in a few minutes, free and directly in your browser. You enter your company, attach the shareholders and download the result as a PDF. Planvik flags the beneficial owners automatically.
From your company to the finished PDF.
Type the name of your company into the central tile. That is your starting point.
Click „+ Shareholder“, choose natural person or legal entity and enter the share, as a percentage or as a number of shares. Multi-level subsidiaries are possible too.
One click, and you get a clean one-page PDF, including a list of the beneficial owners.
Planvik flags the beneficial owners automatically under Section 3 GwG: more than 25%, with the correct control-based approach. If no one holds over 25%, the managing directors count as fictitious beneficial owners.
Create your ownership chartA beneficial owner is the natural person who ultimately owns or controls a company. Two cases have to be distinguished. Direct: a person holds more than 25% of the shares or voting rights themselves. Indirect: a person controls an intermediate company (usually over 50%), and that company holds more than 25% of the target. In that case the full share is attributed, the percentages are not multiplied down the chain. If two shareholders each hold 50%, both are beneficial owners.
If no natural person holds more than 25%, for example with five shareholders holding 20% each, there is no actual beneficial owner. In that case, under Section 3(2) GwG, the legal representatives count as fictitious beneficial owners, so for a GmbH the managing directors. Planvik detects this case and shows it directly.
Planvik calculates from the capital and voting shares you enter. Special cases such as voting agreements or pooling contracts, trust arrangements, comprehensive veto rights or voting rights that differ from the capital share cannot be derived from this and must be checked separately. This note also appears in the generated PDF.
Yes, completely free and with no sign-up. You build your ownership chart directly online in the browser and download it as a PDF.
The natural person who ultimately owns or controls a company. Under Section 3 GwG that is whoever holds more than 25% of the shares or voting rights, or exercises control in a comparable way.
At more than 25%; exactly 25% does not count. For indirect holdings, what matters is control of the intermediate company (over 50%), not multiplying the percentages down the chain.
Then the fictitious beneficial owner applies: the legal representatives, for a GmbH the managing directors. Planvik shows this automatically.
Yes. Planvik automatically picks portrait or landscape and scales everything onto one page, including a list of the beneficial owners.
No. The ownership chart is built entirely in your browser. No shareholder data is sent to a server.