S.A. (corporation)

The abbreviation S.A. or SA^[a] designates a type of limited company in certain countries, most of which have a Romance language as their official language and operate 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:

Sociedade Anónima in Galician and European Portuguese (used in Portugal, Timor Leste, Macao, and Lusophone Africa)
- Equivalent as 股份有限公司 in Chinese for Macau^[2]
Sociedade Anônima in Brazilian Portuguese (used in Brazil)
Sociedá Anónima in Asturian and Leonese
Societat Anònima in Catalan
Société anonyme 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 naamloze vennootschap), Luxembourg (also identifiable in Luxembourgish as Aktiegesellschaft), Switzerland (where it is equivalent to an Aktiengesellschaft or a Società Anonima), as well as Haiti, Lebanon, and such African countries as Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco,^[3] Mauritania, Senegal, Ivory Coast, and Algeria)
Société par actions in Canadian French
Società Anonima in Swiss Italian (in Italy replaced by Società per azioni, S.p.A., since 1942)
Sociedad Anónima or Sociedad por Acciones in Spanish
- Mexican law also takes into account the variability of the corporate stock, resulting in most S.A. turning into Sociedad Anónima de Capital Variable (S.A. de C.V.), or Sociedad Anónima Bursátil de Capital Variable (S.A.B. de C.V.) for publicly traded companies.
- Mexico also has Sociedad de Responsabilidad Limitada de Capital Variable (S. de R.L. de C.V.), which is analogous to the limited liability company.
Spółka Akcyjna in Polish
Societate pe Acțiuni in Romanian

"SA" is part of the name of lots of corporations named after an acronym: some examples are Cepsa, originally Compañía Española de Petróleos, Sociedad Anónima, "Spanish petroleum company, S.A.";^[4] Sabena, originally Societé anonyme belge d'Exploitation de la Navigation aérienne, "Belgian S.A. of exploitation of air navigation".

Literal meaning

It is equivalent in literal meaning and function to:

Naamloze vennootschap (N.V.) in Dutch
Perseroan Terbatas Terbuka (P.T. Tbk.) in Indonesia
Berhad (Bhd.) in Malaysia
Anonim Şirket (A.Ş.) or Anonim Ortaklık (A.O.) in Turkish
Corporación anónima (C.A.) in Ecuador and Venezuela
Anonymi Etaireia (Ανώνυμη Εταιρεία, A.E.) in Greek is usually translated into S.A. in English and foreign languages.

Function

It is equivalent in function to:

Shoqëri Aksionare (Sh.a.) in Albanian
شركة مساهمة عامة ذات مسؤولية محدودة ش.ذ.م.م, Sharikah musāhamah ʿāmmah dhāt mas'ūliyyah maḥdūdah (lit. 'Public share company with limited liability') in Arabic
Dioničko društvo (d.d.) in Croatian and Bosnian
Акционерно дружество, Aktsionerno druzhestvo (АД) in Bulgarian
Акционерско друштво, Akcionersko društvo (АД) in Macedonian
Akciová společnost (a.s.) in Czech
Aktieselskab (A/S) in Danish
Société anonyme égyptienne (S.A.E.) or شركة مساهمة مصرية (Sherka mosahama Maṣreyya, lit. 'Egyptian share company', abbreviated ش.م.م) in Egypt
Osakeyhtiö (Oy) in Finnish
Aktsiaselts (AS) in Estonian
Aktiengesellschaft (AG) in German^[5]
Részvénytársaság (Rt) in Hungarian
Hlutafélag (Hf) in Icelandic
Private Limited (Pvt. Ltd.) in India and Pakistan
Public limited company (plc) in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and several Commonwealth countries
Kabushiki gaisha (K.K.) or 株式会社 in Japan
Jusighoesa (J) or 주식회사 in Korea^{[clarification needed]}
Société anonyme laotienne (S.A.L.) in Laos
Akcinė bendrovė (AB) in Lithuanian
Akciju sabiedrība (AS) in Latvian
Aksjeselskap (AS) in Norwegian
Акционерное общество, Aktsionernoye obshchestvo (AO) in Russian
Деоничарско друштво, Deoničarsko društvo (d.d.), or Акционарско друштво, Akcionarsko društvo (a.d.) in Serbian
Private Limited (Pte. Ltd.) in Singapore
Akciová spoločnosť (a.s.) in Slovak
Delniška družba (d.d.) in Slovene^{[citation needed]}
Aktiebolag (AB) in Swedish
Incorporated in the Philippines (formerly used Spanish S.A., corporate structures were Americanized during the US colonial period) ^[6]
Акціонерне товариство, 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
Compañía Anónima (C.A.) in Andorra
ក.អ(ក្រុមហ៊ុនអនាមិក) or Société anonyme cambodgienne (S.A.C.; lit. 'Cambodian share company') in Cambodia
Công ti cổ phần in Vietnam
股份有限公司 in Chinese^[2]

References

^ "Société Anonyme (S.A.): Definition, Examples, Requirements". Investopedia. Archived from the original on 2024-02-28. Retrieved 2024-02-28.
^ ^a ^b "公司的種類及股東的責任" (in Chinese). 澳門青年創業孵化中心. Archived from the original on 2023-09-19. Retrieved 2023-02-06.
^ "Note de synthèse – Fonctionnement de la SA" (in Spanish). 6 January 2021. Archived from the original on 11 March 2024. Retrieved 11 March 2024.
^ Escolar, Arsenio (6 November 2024). "El petróleo ahora mancha incluso las marcas y la reputación". elDiario.es (in European Spanish). Retrieved 7 November 2024.
^ "26 CFR 301.7701-2 – Business entities; definitions. | US Law | LII / Legal Information Institute". Legal Information Institute. Archived from the original on 2020-11-07. Retrieved 2018-03-05. (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 Societe Anonyme will be a corporation and treated in the same manner as an Aktiengesellschaft.
^ "G.R. No. L-37331". Lawphil Project. Retrieved 2024-08-18.

^ Depending on language, SA can mean anonymous company, anonymous partnership, share company, or joint-stock company. See § In different countries.

External links

Global Witness on Anonymous Companies

[2] "Société Anonyme (S.A.): Definition, Examples, Requirements". Investopedia. Archived from the original on 2024-02-28. Retrieved 2024-02-28.

[mo-3] "公司的種類及股東的責任" (in Chinese). 澳門青年創業孵化中心. Archived from the original on 2023-09-19. Retrieved 2023-02-06.

[4] "Note de synthèse – Fonctionnement de la SA" (in Spanish). 6 January 2021. Archived from the original on 11 March 2024. Retrieved 11 March 2024.

[Escolar-5] Escolar, Arsenio (6 November 2024). "El petróleo ahora mancha incluso las marcas y la reputación". elDiario.es (in European Spanish). Retrieved 7 November 2024.

[6] "26 CFR 301.7701-2 – Business entities; definitions. | US Law | LII / Legal Information Institute". Legal Information Institute. Archived from the original on 2020-11-07. Retrieved 2018-03-05. (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 Societe Anonyme will be a corporation and treated in the same manner as an Aktiengesellschaft.

[7] "G.R. No. L-37331". Lawphil Project. Retrieved 2024-08-18.

[1] Depending on language, SA can mean anonymous company, anonymous partnership, share company, or joint-stock company. See § In different countries.

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