Set up a holding company with clearer ownership and governance

Businesses often look at a holding company structure when they want ownership of trading entities held in one place rather than personally or through a single operating company. That can come up when founders are separating valuable assets from day-to-day trading risk, preparing for investment, adding new ventures, or tidying up an existing group. The legal work is not just about registering another company. It also involves making sure the ownership and governance documents line up with the structure you are actually trying to create and how the group will operate.

The process usually starts with confirming the intended structure, including who will own the holding company, what subsidiaries or assets sit beneath it, and whether this is a fresh setup or part of a restructure. From there, the legal work may include incorporation paperwork, a constitution, shareholder and director resolutions, and practical implementation documents. If an existing business is being moved into a new structure, sequencing matters. For example, ownership changes, internal approvals and related documents may need to happen in a sensible order rather than all at once.

We generally need details about the proposed owners, directors, the role the holding company will play in the group, and whether there are already trading companies or assets in place. It is also helpful to know if outside investors, co-founders or family ownership arrangements are involved, because that can affect the governance approach. If this is part of a restructure, we may need to review the current setup first. The clearer the intended ownership map is at the start, the smoother the document and filing stage tends to be.

Yes, in many cases this service can assist where the goal is to shift from a single-company setup to a group structure. The work often depends on what already exists, who currently owns the trading business, and whether contracts, assets or shares need to be moved or reorganised. That means the legal steps can be more involved than a brand-new incorporation. We can review the current arrangement, identify the main documents likely to be needed, and explain whether the restructure fits within this service or needs a broader scope.

Yes. Some parts of the process depend on external systems and decisions, such as incorporation processing and any information that must be supplied to complete registrations. If your wider restructure involves banks, accountants, investors or counterparties, their timing can also affect the overall sequence.

Scope note: regulator requirements, approval timeframes and supporting steps can vary. The fixed-fee covers the stated legal work, not promise outcomes. If third-party requirements become a major part of the matter, we can explain what we can handle and what may need separate support.

Just submit an enquiry via this page or click the 'get started' button on our website to submit an enquiry. After you've submitted an enquiry, one of our legal consultants will review your enquiry within 1 business day and get in touch to get a better idea of exactly what you are looking for.

Then your legal consultant will send through an email with a bit more information about the services you need, along with a fixed fee quote setting out costs, scope of the service and timing. Have a read through it, and if you're happy with the scope, you can accept and sign our engagement letter online - easy!

Once you've formally accepted, we'll connect you with a specialist lawyer and they will work with you to complete your project. They will contact you by email or phone if they need to get in touch.

Sprintlaw works on fixed-fee pricing wherever possible, so you can review the scope and cost before you decide whether to proceed. For the Holding Company Set Up service, pricing starts from $900.00.

After you enquire, a legal consultant will confirm what is included, the expected timing and whether any extra work is needed before you engage us.

We operate completely online, which means we can help you wherever you are in New Zealand. We have office spaces in Sydney, and in Melbourne, but our use of technology allows our team members to work remotely from around the world. Our legal team are mostly based in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. We also have a London office for Sprintlaw UK.

Our legal team is made up of experienced lawyers, who are specialists in various areas of law and hold an Australian legal practising certificate. None of our Sprintlaw lawyers are New Zealand qualified lawyers and they do not currently hold a New Zealand practising certificate.

They provide legal services working remotely from Australia via our 'legal consultancy' model, through which (under section 6 and section 35 of the New Zealand Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006) our Australian legal team are permitted to provide legal services to New Zealand businesses provided they do not provide services in certain 'reserved' areas of law. You can read our FAQ page to learn a bit more about our 'legal consultancy' model.

Given the strong similarities between Australian and New Zealand law, and the areas of law in which we practice (being small business and startup law), we do not view the fact that our lawyers have not qualified in New Zealand as having any substantive impact on the quality of our service. We are committed to ensuring that we provide high quality, affordable legal services to all our New Zealand clients.

Our legal team have all trained at leading firms, but have left the traditional corporate law world to join us on our mission to create a new and better way of delivering legal services. They have specialist expertise in technology law, intellectual property law, contract drafting and review, corporate law and commercial law.