Aktiengesellschaft
Encyclopedia : A : AK : AKT : Aktiengesellschaft
|
| Business law |
|---|
| Business organizations |
| Common law business forms: |
| Sole proprietorship |
| Partnership · Corporation |
| General partnership |
| Business trust |
| Statutory business forms: |
| Limited partnership |
| Proprietary limited company |
| Public limited company |
| Limited liability partnership |
| Limited liability company |
| Civil law corporate forms: |
| AB · AG · ANS · A/S · GmbH |
| K.K. · N.V. · OY · S.A. |
| EU law: |
| SE · SCE |
| Doctrines |
| Corporate governance |
| Limited liability · Ultra vires |
| Business judgment rule |
| De facto corporation and corporation by estoppel |
| Piercing the corporate veil |
| Related areas of law |
| Contract · Civil procedure |
Meaning of the word
Aktien means shares, and Gesellschaft means business association in this context. Thus, the term refers to a company which procures its financial means from shares traded in the stock market, i.e, a publicly-traded company.Reasons for setting up a corporation
When a corporation is started, it often must collect a lot of money to pay for startup costs, and banks provide only a limited amount, especially if it is unknown whether that corporation is going to earn enough money to repay all the loans plus interest on time. However, some members of the public will take a risk and provide money in exchange for a piece of paper, or just a book entry, that can be sold to others on the stock market, and that has a value that fluctuates, depending on, for example, whether the shares concerned will pay dividends, and if so, how much per year, or what percentage of the current price of the shares.Legal basis
The legal basis of the AG is, in Germany and Austria, the respective Aktiengesetz (abbr. AktG), in Switzerland a part of the Obligationenrecht (OR). As the law requires all corporations to specify their legal form (which gives the limitation of liability) in the name, all German and Austrian stock corporations bear Aktiengesellschaft or AG as part (usually suffix) of their name.See also
- Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung (GmbH; limited liability company)
- Public limited company (the corresponding concept in the UK and in Ireland)
- S. A. (the corresponding concept in France, Spain and other Romanic countries)
- Naamloze Vennootschap (the corresponding concept in the Netherlands)
- Aktiebolag (the corresponding concept in Sweden)
- Osakeyhtiö (the corresponding concept in Finland)
- Limited liability company
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.