Companies

Who actually controls
the company.

Ownership traced upward through holding structures to the people who really hold it. Those people are then screened, and their other companies examined. For acquisitions, supplier onboarding, distribution and investment.

The method

The decision this serves

The name on the contract
is almost never the answer.

A company register tells you who is formally registered. It does not tell you who ends up holding the economic interest once a holding company owns a holding company. That is the question every sanctions, procurement and AML obligation actually turns on.

A single-layer check reads a holding company as the owner and stops. Previo does not stop there.

What runs

Five stages, in order.

01
Corporate standing

Registration status and filing history, and the structural signals that carry meaning on their own: insolvency, compulsory dissolution, strike-off, and the absence of any currently registered owner. That absence is a finding in itself rather than a blank.

02
Sanctions on the entity

The company screened against the consolidated OFAC, UN, UK OFSI and EU lists, with weak matches surfaced for a reviewer rather than resolved in silence.

03
Adverse media on the entity

Published reporting against the company in English and Danish, dated by the underlying event and discounted where the match to the entity is weak.

04
Ownership traced to real people

The chain is walked upward through holding companies until it reaches natural persons, with stakes multiplied along the way. A third of a holding company that wholly owns the subject reads as a third of the subject, and that is the number your obligations actually attach to.

05
The people behind it, screened

Owners, beneficial owners and directors screened in turn, up to ten of them, prioritised by control rather than by title, and one bounded step out into the other companies they run.

What we search

Six sources, on the entity
and on everyone behind it.

Source What it establishes Reach
Company register Registration status, officers, and the registered ownership layer UK, Denmark
Ownership chain The natural persons at the top of a holding structure, with stakes multiplied through the chain Denmark
Sanctions & watchlists The entity and every screened person against the consolidated lists OFAC, UN, UK OFSI, EU
Adverse media Published reporting against the entity and against every screened person Several engines, EN and DA
Director disqualifications Disqualification records against screened officers UK
Business network The other companies a screened person is connected to, one step out UK, Denmark

How the output reads

One band,
for any company.

A company is scored on a flat scale, because it has no seniority to adjust for. Its own registration status is the dominant signal; findings against the people behind it are weighted by how close they sit to control.

80–100
Clear

No material findings against the entity or the people behind it.

50–79
Caution

Findings that warrant a conversation before contracting.

0–49
Do not proceed

Insolvency, compulsory dissolution, a sanctions match, or serious regulatory action.

Know the counterparty
before the signature.