S.A. (corporation) explained

The abbreviation S.A. or SA, for the French French: {{linktext|société anonyme designates a type of limited company in certain countries, most of which have a Romance language as their official language and operates a derivative of the 1804, Napoleonic, civil law.^[1] Originally, shareholders could be anonymous and collect dividends by surrendering coupons attached to their share certificates. Dividends were paid to whomever held the certificate. Since share certificates could be transferred privately, corporate management would not necessarily know who owned its shares - nor did anyone but the holders.

As with bearer bonds, anonymous unregistered share ownership and dividend collection enabled money laundering, tax evasion, and concealed business transactions in general, so governments passed laws to audit the practice. Nowadays, shareholders of S.A.s are not anonymous, though shares can still be held by a holding company to obscure the beneficiary.

Variations

Abbreviation

S.A. can be an abbreviation of:

in Galician and European Portuguese (used in Portugal, Timor Leste, Macao, and Lusophone Africa)
- Equivalent as Chinese: 股份有限公司 in Chinese for Macau^[2]
in Brazilian Portuguese (used in Brazil)
in Asturian and Leonese
in Catalan
in French (as used in French-speaking countries such as France (including French Polynesia, and New Caledonia) and Monaco; also in partially Francophone countries and/or nations with French as one of their official languages like Belgium (where it is equivalent to a), Luxembourg (also identifiable in Luxembourgish as Luxembourgish; Letzeburgesch: Aktiegesellschaft), Switzerland (where it is equivalent to an German: [[Aktiengesellschaft]] or a Italian: Società Anonima), as well as Haiti, Lebanon, and such African countries as Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco,^[3] Mauritania, Senegal, Ivory Coast, and Algeria)
French: Société par actions in Canadian French
in Swiss Italian (in Italy replaced by, S.p.A., since 1942)
or in Spanish
- Mexican law also takes into account the variability of the corporate stock, resulting in most S.A. turning into (S.A. de C.V.), or (S.A.B. de C.V.) for publicly traded companies.
- Mexico also has, which is analogous to the limited liability company.
in Polish
in Romanian

Literal meaning

It is equivalent in literal meaning and function to:

(N.V.) in Dutch
(P.T. Tbk.) in Indonesia
(Bhd.) in Malaysia
(A.Ş.) or Anonim Ortaklık (A.O.) in Turkish
(C.A.) in Ecuador and Venezuela
(A.E.) in Greek is usually translated into S.A. in English and foreign languages.

Function

It is equivalent in function to:

in Albanian
, in Arabic
(d.d.) in Croatian and Bosnian
, Bulgarian: Aktsionerno druzhestvo (АД) in Bulgarian
Macedonian: Акционерско друштво, Macedonian: Akcionersko društvo (АД) in Macedonian
(a.s.) in Czech
Danish: [[Aktieselskab]] (A/S) in Danish
(S.A.E.) or (abbreviated ش.م.م) in Egypt
Finnish: [[Osakeyhtiö]] (Oy) in Finnish
(AS) in Estonian
(AG) in German^[4]
Hungarian: Részvénytársaság (Rt) in Hungarian
(Hf) in Icelandic
Private Limited (Pvt. Ltd.) in India and Pakistan
Public limited company (plc) in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and several Commonwealth countries
(K.K.) or in Japan
(J) or in Korea
in Laos
(AB) in Lithuanian
(AS) in Latvian
Norwegian: [[Aksjeselskap]] (AS) in Norwegian
, Russian: Aktsionernoye obshchestvo (AO) in Russian
, Serbian: Deoničarsko društvo (d.d.), or, Serbian: Akcionarsko društvo (a.d.) in Serbian
Private Limited (Pte. Ltd.) in Singapore
(a.s.) in Slovak
(d.d.) in Slovene
Swedish: [[Aktiebolag]] (AB) in Swedish
Incorporated in the Philippines (formerly used Spanish S.A., corporate structures were Americanized during the US colonial period) ^[5]
, Ukrainian: Aktsionerne tovarystvo (AT) in Ukrainian
Publicly traded company ("public company") or Incorporated (Inc.) in the United States, though the former term does not appear in the names of business entities
(C.A.) in Andorra
or (S.A.C.;) in Cambodia
Vietnamese: Công ti cổ phần in Vietnam
股份有限公司 in Chinese^[2]

External links

Global Witness on Anonymous Companies

Notes and References

Web site: Société Anonyme (S.A.): Definition, Examples, Requirements . 2024-02-28 . Investopedia . en . 2024-02-28 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240228015209/https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/socit-anonyme.asp . live .
Web site: 公司的種類及股東的責任. 澳門青年創業孵化中心. zh. 2023-02-06. 2023-09-19. https://web.archive.org/web/20230919172136/https://myeic.com.mo/support-tw/%E5%85%AC%E5%8F%B8%E7%9A%84%E7%A8%AE%E9%A1%9E%E5%8F%8A%E8%82%A1%E6%9D%B1%E7%9A%84%E8%B2%AC%E4%BB%BB/. live.
Web site: 6 January 2021 . Note de synthèse – Fonctionnement de la SA . es . 11 March 2024 . 11 March 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240311011334/https://www.upsilon-consulting.com/societe-anonyme-au-maroc/ . live .
Web site: 26 CFR 301.7701-2 – Business entities; definitions. US Law LII / Legal Information Institute . Legal Information Institute . (v)Multilingual countries. Different linguistic renderings of the name of an entity listed in paragraph (b)(8)(i) of this section shall be disregarded. For example, an entity formed under the laws of Switzerland as a French: Societe Anonyme will be a corporation and treated in the same manner as an German: Aktiengesellschaft. . 2018-03-05 . 2020-11-07 . https://web.archive.org/web/20201107044545/https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/26/301.7701-2 . live .
Web site: G.R. No. L-37331 . 2024-08-18 . Lawphil Project . en. live .