Heineken runs one of the most legible pyramids in European business, and it is legible because the company publishes every rung of it.
As at 31 December 2025, the chain reads: the Heineken family holds 88.98% of L'Arche Green N.V. and the Hoyer family holds 11.02%. L'Arche Green holds 53.171% of Heineken Holding N.V. Heineken Holding N.V. holds 50.005% of the issued share capital of Heineken N.V. — 50.494% of the outstanding capital, once shares whose voting rights are suspended are excluded.
Every one of those figures comes from an audited annual report, and every one was unchanged from 2024.
Why this profile publishes no Control Wedge
The obvious move is to multiply along the chain. Roughly 53% of roughly 50% is roughly 27%, which against majority control would give a wedge somewhere near 23 points. It would make a good chart.
We do not publish it, for a reason worth stating plainly: no filing contains that number. It is a construction, and constructions do not carry the same warranty as figures read off a disclosure. Our wedge is defined as reported voting power minus reported economic ownership, and at the level where the family actually appears in a document — L'Arche Green's stake in Heineken Holding — votes and economics are the same 53.171%. The divergence is not inside any single company. It is produced by stacking two of them.
That is a real limitation of a one-number metric, and it is more useful to say so than to publish an estimate that ties to nothing.
What the structure is actually for
Heineken Holding is explicit that it is not an ordinary holding company. It has existed since 1952 to promote the continuity, independence, and stability of Heineken, which is a polite way of saying it exists so that a brewer with a public listing cannot be bought.
The arithmetic is the whole defence. An acquirer who wanted Heineken N.V. would need Heineken Holding, and an acquirer who wanted Heineken Holding would need L'Arche Green, which is not listed and is owned by two families. The public float never reaches the decision. Both companies trade on Euronext Amsterdam, and buying either one buys no path to control.
What is not established here
The family's effective economic interest, for the reason given above. Also the internal arrangements of L'Arche Green N.V. — how the Heineken and Hoyer families vote relative to each other, and what happens on a succession within either — which are not disclosed in the listed companies' reports and are the terms on which this structure will eventually be tested.