Public limited company

A public limited company (legally abbreviated to plc) is a type of public company (publicly held company) under United Kingdom company law, some Commonwealth jurisdictions, and the Republic of Ireland. It is a limited (liability) company whose shares may be freely sold and traded to the public (although a plc may also be privately held, often by another plc), with a minimum share capital of £50,000 and the letters PLC after its name. Similar companies in the United States are called publicly traded companies.

A PLC can be either an unlisted or listed company on the stock exchanges. In the United Kingdom, a public limited company usually must include the words "public limited company" or the abbreviation "PLC" or "plc" at the end and as part of the legal company name. Welsh companies may instead choose to end their names with ccc, an abbreviation for cwmni cyfyngedig cyhoeddus. However, some public limited companies (mostly nationalised concerns) incorporated under special legislation are exempted from bearing any of the identifying suffixes. The term "public limited company" and the "PLC"/"plc" suffix were introduced in 1974; prior to this, all limited companies bore the suffix "Limited" ("Ltd"), which is still used by private limited companies.

Limited company

In a limited company, the liability of members or subscribers of the company is limited to what they have invested or guaranteed to the company. Limited companies may be limited by shares or by guarantee. The former may be further divided into public companies and private companies. Who may become a member of a private limited company is restricted by law and by the company's rules. In contrast, anyone may buy shares in a public limited company.

Limited companies can be found in most of the countries, although the detailed rules governing them vary widely. It is also common for a distinction to be made between the publicly tradable companies of the plc type (for example, the German Aktiengesellschaft (AG), British PLC, Czech a.s., Italian S.p.A. and the Spanish, French, Polish and Romanian S.A.), and the "private" types of company (such as the German GmbH, British Ltd, Polish sp. z o.o., the Czech s.r.o., the Italian s.r.l. and Slovak s.r.o.)

Kinds

Private company limited by guarantee