Holding Company:Under the Companies Act, 1956, a holding company is any company which holds more than half of the equity share capital of other companies or controls the composition of the board of directors of other companies. In the words of Haney, "a form of business organization which is created for the purpose of combining other corporations by owning a controlling amount of their stock. Types of holding companies:1. Parent holding company:It comes into existence when an organization in existence acquires a controlling stake in existing companies or starts new companies under its control. For e. g. Tata Tea has acquired a controlling stake in Tetley, a UK tea company. In this case, Tata Tea is the parent holding company. 2. Offspring company: A new company started by some existing companies with the objective of exercising control. For example, ACC Limited (The Associated Cement Companies Limited) was set up by Lafarge Holcim as its subsidiary. Lafarge Holcim is the parent holding company and ACC Limited is the offspring company. 3. Pure holding company: A company that is established primarily for uniting and controlling the subsidiaries. For e. g. in the Tata group, Tata Sons Ltd. was established for uniting and controlling the various subsidiaries. TV Sundaram Iyengar and Sons are the holding company of the TVS group. 4. Primary holding company: A holding company which is not a subsidiary of any other company. For example, Unilever Ltd. , set. up HLL (Hindustan Lever Limited) as its subsidiary. Unilever Ltd. , which is the holding company is not a subsidiary of any other company and is, therefore, a primary holding company. 5. Mixed holding company: A holding company that runs its own business and also controls the business of its subsidiaries. For e. g. ICI Ltd. set up Indian Explosive as its subsidiary. ICI Ltd. runs its own business and also controls the business of Indian Explosives. Therefore, The ACC (Associated Cement Company) in India that does not operate its own plant, but was established only to control the subsidiaries is an instance of an offspring company.