Look up company ownership
Enter a company name or number. Instant results: PSC data, directors, shareholders, and network connections.
Where ownership information lives
UK company ownership is spread across multiple registers. No single source gives you the complete picture. Here is where to look and what each one tells you.
PSC Register (Persons with Significant Control)
Shows anyone who owns 25% or more of shares, holds 25% or more of voting rights, or has the right to appoint or remove a majority of directors. Required by law since 2016. This is the primary ownership disclosure for UK companies.
Confirmation Statement (share capital)
Filed annually, this shows the full breakdown of share capital: how many shares exist, what classes they are, and how they are allotted. For companies with multiple shareholders, this is the most granular public record of equity distribution.
Charges Register
Shows secured creditors (banks, lenders, asset finance companies) who have a charge over the company's assets. A debenture holder with a fixed and floating charge effectively controls the company's assets, even if they own no shares.
HMLR (Land Registry, separate system)
If the company owns property, the Land Registry shows the title and any charges over land. This is a separate register from Companies House and requires its own search. Property ownership often reveals the real economic substance of a company.
Why ownership matters
Knowing who controls a company is not just curiosity. It is essential due diligence. Here is why ownership matters for anyone extending credit, signing a contract, or entering a business relationship.
Phoenix patterns
A director dissolves one company with unpaid debts and starts a near-identical replacement the next day. Same person, same trade, clean slate. You cannot spot this without mapping ownership across companies.
Shell companies
Companies with no trading activity, no employees, and no real address. Used to layer transactions, obscure the trail of funds, or create the appearance of a legitimate supply chain.
Nominee arrangements
A nominee shareholder or director appears on the public register, but the real decision-maker operates behind the scenes. Legal, but designed to obscure who actually benefits from the company's activities.
Beneficial ownership tracing
The real owner may sit three layers deep: a person controls a trust, which owns a holding company, which owns the trading company you are dealing with. Tracing this chain is essential for any serious credit or contract decision.
What RecoupIQ shows you
One search brings the available ownership, officer and identity evidence into a single company record. Here is what you get beyond a basic Companies House lookup.
PSC data with context. See the published control names, control bands and current or ceased state where available. Wider company connections remain source-dependent.
Director context. Current officer records are shown on the free company page where published. Paid analysis can expand appointment history and connected-company context where the evidence supports it.
Cross-company review. Deeper reports can compare identities, filing history and connected records. Any pattern is presented as a lead to verify, not as a proven conclusion.
Ownership limits. Corporate PSCs, nominee arrangements and trusts can limit what public data proves. RecoupIQ keeps those boundaries visible instead of presenting an unsupported ultimate-owner conclusion.
Limitations of Companies House
Companies House is free and essential. But it has structural limitations when it comes to showing who really owns a company.
- ·25% threshold. Ownership below 25% is invisible on the PSC register. Four people each owning 24% would show no PSC at all.
- ·Nominee arrangements. A nominee appears as the legal owner. The real beneficial owner is disclosed only in a private agreement, not on any public register.
- ·Trusts. Where a trust holds shares, the PSC register shows the trust (or its trustees) but not necessarily the beneficiaries who actually profit.
- ·Overseas entities. Foreign companies owning UK entities must file on the Register of Overseas Entities (since 2022), but enforcement is inconsistent and many filings are incomplete.
- ·No network view. Companies House shows one company at a time. It does not map the connections between directors, their other companies, or shared addresses.
Map the network, not just the name
RecoupIQ maps director networks across every linked UK company. One search shows you the PSC, the director history, and the full web of connections that Companies House cannot display on a single page. Free for the summary, £29 for the full network report.
Search a company nowRelated guides
- Is this company legitimate? Free UK verification check
- Check if a UK director is disqualified
- Check company CCJs UK
Monitor ownership changes
Ownership can change overnight. Directors resign, PSCs transfer control, new charges get filed. RecoupIQ monitoring (from £19.99/mo) alerts you within 24 hours of any ownership or control change on companies you watch. Available via the web dashboard or the Microsoft 365 Trust Check app (per-seat for teams). RecoupIQ is a Microsoft partner.
See monitoring plansLast reviewed: July 2026. General information. Not legal advice. RecoupIQ Ltd, Company No. 16947526, ICO ZC077511. Microsoft Partner.