This is a list of corporate terms used in legal systems of countries other than the United Canadian and American States, Confederation of American States, and the Native American Nations.
British Financial Terms[]
LLC[]
A limited liability corporation, sometimes referred to as a private limited company.
LLP[]
A limited liability partnership.
PLC[]
A public limited company; its shares may be offered for sale to the public. It is also used in Tir na nOg.
Dutch Financial Terms[]
BV[]
Besloten Vennotschap, Dutch language for private company
NV[]
Naamloze Vennotschap, or "nameless company" in English.
French Financial Terms[]
S.A.R.L.[]
Société à Responsabilité Limitée (Limited Liability Company).
S.A.[]
Société Anonyme (Anonymous Company). In spite of what the name might suggest, a SA does have a name and is a legal person (like an Anglo-Saxon corporation). The owners are not liable for the company. Requirements include a minimum number of shareholders.
S.A.S.[]
Société Anonyme Simplifié (Simplified Anonymous Society). S.A.S are similar to S.A. but do not have any requirement on the number of shareholders. A single person can solely own a S.A.S.
German Finance Terms[]
AG[]
Aktiengesellschaft, German language for stock corporation.
GmbH[]
Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung, equivalent to limited liability. If the company goes broke, the company is only responsible up to a certain amount to the shareholders, usually with a minimum of 25,000 Euro.
Kaufmann[]
German for "trader". Kaufleute used for a company with multiple traders. If the company goes broke, the owners lose everything.
KG[]
Kommanditgesellschaft, basically a partnership between two owners. One of the owners is libel for all that is owned in the company, named the Komplementär, while the other owner is libel up to a certain point, known as a Komanditist. The Komanditist is a silent partner, and has no say in the operations of the company.
OHG[]
Offene Handelsgesellschaft (open trading organization). The company is owned by a group of owners that have everything they own into the corporation as well as money that has been put into a "pool". A similar organization type to OHG is GbR (Gesellschaft bürgerlichen Rechts, organization of civil law), which is different from an OHG by the way the company is founded.
Italian Financial Terms[]
S.A.p.A.[]
Società in Accomandita per Azioni, Italian language term for "limited partnership".
S.p.A.[]
Società per Azioni, Italian for "joint-stock corporation", a basic corporation.
Japanese Financial Terms[]
Keiretsu[]
A keiretsu (系列, series or subsidiary) is a group of companies with interlocking business relationships and shareholdings. Keiretsu were established following the Allied occupation of Japan after WWII and the dissolution of the family-owned conglomerates. The keiretsu run their subsidiary businesses through a system of cross-shareholding, where each company owned shares in all other group members. Within this keiretsu, the major shareholders are typically a bank, a brokerage, and an insurance company.
Sokaiya[]
A sokaiya (��?会屋), while not exactly a legitimate corporate term in the legal sense, is a special type of racketeer unique to Japan and is usually associated with yakuza. They often infiltrate shareholders' meetings, disrupt proceedings and typically embarrass the company with their presence until their demands are met. The Yakuza also employs the tactic to gather black-market corporate intelligence for future criminal use.
Zaibatsu[]
A zaibatsu (財閥, money clique) is a historical Japanese term for a conglomerate. While the original concept of the zaibatsu, a holding company owned mostly by a single family, was outlawed in post-WWII Japan and replaced in thought by the keiretsu, the term has likely returned to popular usage within the Japanese Imperial State and evidence of a return to the zaibatsu concept could be seen in some of the Japanacorps, with the best example being Shiawase.
Nemawashi[]
Nemawashi (根回�?�) in Japanese culture is an informal process of quietly laying the foundation for some proposed change or project, by talking to the people concerned, gathering support and feedback, and so forth. Fixers and headhunters have co-opted the term to represent the legwork involved in preparing a major extraction. A team has to dig around the roots, extracting the family and supporting employees of a targeted executive, before relocating the target itself. (Nemawashi's original meaning was literal: digging around the roots of a tree, to prepare it for a transplant.)
Korean Financial Terms[]
Chaebol[]
A chaebol is a Korean word meaing "conglomerate". Many chaebols tend to be broken up into several companies, all sharing the same common name or brand, although some are just large single corporations.