It all depends how the subsidiaries are structured and how much equity the holding company owns. If the holding owns 100% of the subsidiary then the holding company can do whatever with the profits. They can either make the subsidiary declare the profits or transfer the profits to the holding company. If the holding company owns 49% of less then the company managers get to decide how the company operates. However, the company managers might have some sort of agreement with the holding company (ie. declare 90% of profits as dividends etc.)
Corporations/wealthy people use foreign holding companies and subsidiaries to lower their tax liability but its complicated to do and requires lots of planning in order to not break any laws. That's why you don't see many corporations complaining about high taxes as stifling their growth, rather they complain about lack of sales. Some idiots will say, "see, the corporations aren't complaining about high corporate tax." Meanwhile, they totally disregard the fact that most corporations pay little to no taxes in the first place. It was the same story when the top personal income tax bracket was 90%. No one complained about it because no one actually paid it (due to deductions/credits).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xm3RTgItj4Y