Società per azioni

Società per azioni (S.p.A. or SpA) is a form of corporation in Italy, meaning "company with shares" (although often translated as "joint-stock company", which may or may not be a limited liability entity). It is equivalent to S.A. or public limited company in other countries. However, local variances still existed.

The other common form of corporation in Italy was società a responsabilità limitata (s.r.l.) (literally: limited liability company). S.p.A. issued shares (Italian: azioni), while in s.r.l., the unit was quote/stock of share capital. Moreover, the articles of association of s.r.l. allowed different allocation of profit and assets, which was more comparable to a limited partnership.[1]

Since 2016, banks are required to run as S.p.A. if their assets are more than a defined threshold. This saw Banco BPM, BPER Banca, UBI Banca, and the blue chips of the FTSE MIB Index demutualized from s.c.p.a., s.c. a.r.l., or s.c. (respectively, co-operative company by shares, co-operative company with limited liabilities, and co-operative company).

See also

  • Aktiengesellschaft, the legal form of company in Germany, commonly used in the German translation of Italian companies in German-speaking autonomous regions

References

  1. "A Review of Italian and UK Company Law" (PDF). ACCA. Retrieved 14 February 2017.
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