Mapping Corporate Ownership and Control Changes for Public and Private Companies

Leveraging a comprehensive dataset from Moody’s DataHub, we present a new map of corporate control and corporate control changes for public and private companies. We identify the ultimate owners of 375,634 non-financial European firms from 2015 to 2022, addressing ownership networks and data consistency challenges. Our approach reveals that corporate control changes are common, with about 8.2% of firms changing owners annually. We document how the type of controlling shareholder—family, financial institution, corporation, or State—affects corporate control dynamics. Family owners are generally reluctant to sell, especially when financially constrained. Firms owned by financial institutions, about 10% of our sample, are more likely to experience control changes. States and families are less willing to sell to foreign owners. We also examine the impact of exogenous shocks, such as COVID-19, and find no significant effect on the probability of control changes.