Beneficial owners

Beneficial owners are the natural persons who ultimately own or control a company. Norwegian law requires all limited companies to register their beneficial owners in the Brønnøysund Register Centre (Brønnøysundregistrene), and any change must be reported within 14 days.

dCompany automates the identification process and submits the report directly to the register — no Altinn login required.

Who qualifies as a beneficial owner

A person qualifies as a beneficial owner if they:

• Own more than 25% of the company
• Control more than 25% of the voting rights
• Have the right to appoint or remove more than half the board members
• Exercise control in other ways

For ownership through intermediary companies, the first level requires more than 25% control. Subsequent levels require 50% or more in voting rights or board appointment rights.

A company can have one beneficial owner, several, or none.

How dCompany identifies beneficial owners

When you open the Beneficial owners tab and click Search and register, dCompany automatically maps ownership using your shareholder register combined with publicly available data for Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish companies. The result is a visual ownership tree showing who owns what — and which individuals qualify as beneficial owners.

Review the identified owners. dCompany pre-selects those it can confirm automatically. Before continuing, always check manually for:

• Changes in indirect ownership not yet recorded in dCompany or otherwise made public
• Individuals who can appoint more than half the board, or otherwise exercise control through means not captured in the register

Registering beneficial owners

1. Go to Shareholder register → Beneficial owners
2. Click Search and register
3. Review the ownership map and the list of identified beneficial owners
4. Select one of the three registration options:
   • The company has beneficial owners — one or more persons are identified
   • The company has no beneficial owners — no one meets the criteria
   • The company has beneficial owners, but none can be identified — ownership exists but cannot be traced to specific individuals
5. For each beneficial owner, confirm or fill in:
   • Full name and national ID number or D-number
   • Position type: ownership, voting rights, or other control
   • Ownership percentage range: 25.01–49.99%, 50–74.99%, or 75–100%
   • Basis: direct, indirect, or combined
6. Click Submit to the Brønnøysund Register Centre

After submission, Brønnøysundregistrene processes the report automatically. You receive a decision notice in your Altinn inbox and an email confirmation.

The Beneficial owners tab

Once a submission is sent, the tab shows:

Click Check validity to verify that your existing registration is still accurate based on current ownership data.

Portfolio-level tracking

If you manage multiple companies, the cross-company Companies view has a Beneficial owners tab. It lists all your companies with their current status and the date you last visited each one — making it easy to spot which companies still need attention.

Reference materials

• Beneficial owners — overview (dcompany.no)
• Beneficial owners — step-by-step guide (dcompany.no)
• Brønnøysund Register Centre — beneficial owners (brreg.no)