Take an example HSBC or JPMorgan? What is a holding company? What they offer and how do their services look like?
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A holding company is a company that specializes in owning other companies. They don’t manufacture anything and they Don’t sell products, they own and manage other smaller companies. If they’re managing them why don’t they just merge those smaller companies into themselves? Well by keeping them separate it allows those companies to continue to be small, competitive, self sufficient units and the holding company can sell the entire company as one piece if they so desire.
A good holding company will have a lot of economists, managers and market analysts so they can recognize good companies and manage them well.
The holding company focuses on dealing with investors, setting the overall goals for the group and selecting the senior management of the subsidiaries. Then the subsidiaries focus on the specifics of making money in their area or market. For banks like the ones you mentioned in your question, holding companies have benefits like allowing the bank to have different companies for different countries, which means that dealing with regulations and taxes can be separated out to the subsidiary companies in each country. They also let the banks separate different parts of their business and offer some security in case things go wrong with a particular market or type of business.
A holding company is just one that owns other companies. Instead of a company with divisions, it’s a company with other companies. May be a variety of business, tax, legal, regulatory reasons why its done that way.
The two companies you mentioned are banks… they might do it due to regulatory issues between commercial banks and investment banks that require an arms length association to minimize risks to checking and savings account deposits relative to more highly speculative nature of investment banking activities (see 2008 financial crisis). For a company like Alphabet, it may help alleviate fears of Google snooping via Nest products if they’re separate companies. Consumer goods companies are often buying and selling brands, product categories so it may make sense to break up candy from salty snacks from cheese and dairy (eg. Kraft Mondelez split).
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