Definition and meaning of share – Company Law

SHARES – MEANING and DEFINITION

Introduction

Shares in the share capital of the organization, including stock, is the meaning of the term ‘Shares’. This is as per Section 2(84) of the Companies Act, 2013. As such, a shares is a proportion of the interest in the organization’s resources held by an investor. In this article, we will take a gander at the various kinds of shares like special and Equity shares. Further, we will comprehend certain definitions and guidelines encompassing them.

The Memorandum and Articles of Association of the organization recommend the rights and commitments of investors. Further, an investor must have certain legally binding and different rights according to the arrangements of the Companies Act, 2013.

Area 44 of the Companies Act, 2013, states that shares or debentures or different interests of any part in an organization are portable properties. Additionally, they are adaptable in the way endorsed in the Articles of the organization. Further, Section 45 of the Act commands the numbering of each shares. This number is unmistakable. In any case, if an individual is a holder of the advantageous interest in the shares, at that point this standard doesn’t make a difference (model: share in the records of a store).

The individual who is the proprietor of the shares is called ‘Shareholder’ and the profit he gets for his venture is called ‘Dividend’.

Lawful definition

‘An shares is the premium of an investor in the organization estimated by an amount of cash, for the reasons for risk in any case, and of premium in the second, yet additionally comprising of a progression of common contracts went into by all the investors as per (presently sec33(1) of the Companies Act 2006).’ Farwell J. in Borlands Trustee v. Steel [1901] 1 Ch. 279 at p. 288. The Companies Act 2006 doesn’t give a definition.

A model:

An organization set up to maintain a business will generally have cash (and maybe different resources) put into it by the investors as a trade-off for shares.

For example A, B and C set up an organization and conclude that they will each place in £1,000 as shares capital. The least difficult path for this to be spoken to is for the organization to give 1,000 £1 conventional shares to every one of the three investors. The organization’s given shares capital will at that point be £3,000 partitioned into 3,000 portions of £1 each. It isn’t the main way. An option would be for the three investors to take one shares each and to loan the cash to the organization

Complete capital of an organization is? 5, 00,000 isolated in to 50,000 portions of Rs. 10 each, every unit of Rs. 10 is called share. For this situation there are 50,000 unit for example portions of Rs. 10 each and the capital is Rs. 5, 00,000.

Share capital

The capital of an organization restricted by shares in England and Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland must be isolated into portions of a fixed sum (generally £1, yet they can be any sum and in any cash). Since the organization is a different legitimate element the organization is viewed as sharesing its shares to the (imminent) investors, who pay for them in real money or different resources. Since the lenders of the organization can generally just seek the organization’s resources for installment, share capital is secured in the organization and can be gotten back to the individuals simply subject to the severe principles of an shares repurchase or decrease of capital. The investors are the individuals from the organization and are its proprietors.

Nature of shares

Shareholding is a mind boggling arrangement of joint possession. The investors together own the organization. Simultaneously an shares is itself a thing of property which (subject to the organization’s articles) can be moved by deal or blessing. As a trade-off for putting resources into an organization an investor gets a heap of rights in the organization which may fluctuate as per the kind of shares obtained. Most organizations just have one class of shares (customary shares) however the law in the UK is amazingly adaptable and permits any classes of shares to be made. This is finished by setting out the various rights appended to the different classes (as a rule in the organization’s articles). What rights are joined to the various classes of shares is basically an issue for the organization to decide.

The Characteristics of Shares

  • A shares should be moveable. The standards for share move must be remembered for the organization’s Articles of Incorporation.
  • The reserves used to buy an shares are non-refundable. This, nonetheless, will be influenced by business disintegration or capital decrease.
  • Each share must be relegated a number. This assists with following and screen singular shares. This necessity, be that as it may, is absent in all investor arrangements.

Viswanathan Vs East India Distillers (AIR 1957 Mad.HC.341). For this situation, the court stated, An shares is without a doubt a portable property yet it isn’t mobile property similarly in which a bundle of fabric or a pack of wheat is versatile property. such products are not brought into reality by enactment however an shares in an organization has a place with an entirely unexpected classification of property. It is joined in nature, and it comprises just a heap of rights and commitments.

Kinds of Shares

Area 43 of the Companies Act, 2013 endorses that Share Capital of an organization comprehensively can be of two kinds

  • Preference Shares
  • Equity Shares

Preference Shares [ Section 43(b) of the Companies Act, 2013]

Those shares which convey special rights are Preference Shares. Following are the special privileges of inclination shares Preferential option to get the profit, this implies that organizations will initially make installment to the individual holding inclination shares at a fixed rate or their sum is fixed. They get profit before Equity Shareholders. Profit for capital on the ending up of the organization before that of Equity shares.

Classes of Preference Shares regarding:

  • Dividend
  • Participation in Surplus Dividend
  • Convertibility
  • Redemption

Classes of Preference Shares concerning Dividend regarding Dividend inclination shares are of two sorts:

  • Cumulative Preference Shares – Cumulative Preference Shares are those Preference Shares which convey option to get back payments of profit before the organization makes installment to Equity Shareholders.
  • Non-Cumulative Preference Shares – Non-Cumulative Preference Shares don’t convey any rights for getting unfulfilled obligations of the profit.

Classes of Preference Shares regarding Participation in Surplus Dividend concerning Participation in Surplus Dividend Preference Shares are of two sorts:

  • Participating Preference Shares – The Articles of Association of an organization may give that after the organization delivers the profit to the Equity Shareholders, the holders of Preference Shares will likewise reserve a privilege to take an interest in the excess benefits. The Preference Shares who conveys this privilege are called Participating Preference Shares.
  • Non-Participating Preference Shares – Preference Shares which don’t convey the option to partake in the benefits staying after Equity Shareholders are paid are called Non-Participating Preference Shares.

Classes of Preference Shares concerning Convertibility regarding Convertibility Preference Shares are of two sorts:

  • Convertible Preference Shares – Those Preference Shares which reserve the option to be changed over into Equity Shares are called Convertible Preference Shares.
  • Non-Convertible Preference Shares – Non-Convertible Preference Shares don’t reserve the privilege to be changed over into Equity Shares.

Classes of Preference Shares regarding Redemption concerning Redemption Preference Shares are of two kinds:

  • Redeemable Preference Shares – Redeemable Preference Shares are those Preference Shares which are recovered by the organization at a particular time (not surpassing a long time from the date of issue) for the reimbursement or prior. We call this reimbursement of the sum as Redemption.
  • Irredeemable Preference Shares – The sum returned by the organization at the hour of end up to the holders of such shares is called Irredeemable Preference Shares.

Equity Shares

Equity Shares are those shares which are other than Preference Shares. These are the most well-known class of shares that issues and conveys greatest ‘dangers and prizes’ of the business. On the off chance that an organization incur a misfortune than danger of losing part or all the shares and rewards being installment of higher Dividend and gratefulness in the market esteem.

Author: Ugesh Rajan.J,
School of Excellence in Law, 2nd YearB.C.A.,LLB.,(hons.)

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