From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishholding companyˈholding ˌcompany noun [countable] BFa company that completely or partly owns other companies, as well as doing business itself
Examples from the Corpus
holding company• First City Bancorp., bank holding company, Houston, $ 66,925.• Wells Fargo is the eighth-largest bank holding company in the United States with 2,110 branches in 11 Western states.• Jackson Stephens family, holding company and oil, Little Rock, Ark., $ 53,600.• The shares of First Federal owned by its mutual holding company were canceled.• These will be a regulatory authority, infrastructure company, operations holding company and an equipment company.• The holding company in turn owns 51 percent of Fokker, with the public holding the remaining 49 percent.From Longman Business Dictionaryholding companyˈholding ˌcompanyCOMMERCE a company that completely or partly owns other companies and may also carry out normal business activities itselfthe state holding company which controls the airline → company 