Aktiebolag
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Aktiebolag (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈakːˈtsɪəbʊlɑːɡ], "stock company") is the Swedish term for "limited company" or "corporation". When used in company names, it is abbreviated AB (in Sweden), Ab (in Finland), or A/B (for some older companies), roughly equivalent to the abbreviations Ltd and PLC. The governmental authority responsible for registration of limited companies in Sweden is called Bolagsverket (the Swedish Companies Registration Office).
Sweden
All aktiebolag are divided into two categories: private limited companies and public limited companies. The name of a private limited company may not contain the word publikt ("public") and the name of a public limited company may not contain the word privat or pvt ("private").[1]
Public
A public limited company (publikt aktiebolag) is legally denoted as "AB (publ)" in Sweden or "Abp" in Finland. A Swedish public limited company must have a minimum share capital of 500,000 Swedish kronor and its shares can be offered to the general public on the stock market.[1] The suffix "(publ)" is sometimes omitted in texts of an informal nature, but according to the Swedish Companies Registration Office, "the name of a public limited company must be mentioned with the term (publ) after the business name in the articles of association and elsewhere", unless it is clearly understood from the company’s business name that the company is a public limited company.[1]
Private
For a private limited company in Sweden (privat aktiebolag), the minimum share capital is 50,000 Swedish kronor. The main Swedish statutes regulating limited companies are The Companies Act (Aktiebolagslagen (ABL) 2005:551) and The Limited Companies Ordinance (Aktiebolagsförordningen 2005:559). The law provisions in ABL stipulate that parent companies and subsidiaries are separate legal persons and legal entities.[2]
Examples
The abbreviation AB is seen in company names such as IFS AB, MySQL AB, Mojang AB, Spotify AB, and Scania AB.
Finland
The term aktiebolag is also used in Finland Swedish, alongside the Finnish osakeyhtiö; the choice and ordering of terms tends to indicate the company's primary working language.
References
- 1 2 3 Limited Company. New company registration. In Information about limited liability company, Bolagsverket (The Swedish Companies Registration Office). Retrieved 16 September 2008.
- ↑ Action brought on 25 June 2008 — Commission of the European Communities v Kingdom of Sweden (Case C-274/08)(2008/C 236/10). Official Journal of the European Union, 13 September 2008. Retrieved 16 September 2008.