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What Is the Allowed Minimum and Maximum Number of Shareholders in a Singapore Company?
What Is the Allowed Minimum and Maximum Number of Shareholders in a Singapore Company?
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What is a minimum and maximum number of shareholders in a Singapore company allowed?
Shareholders own a company as they have invested in it, aiming to receive dividends or growth in the company value and their shares. Upon company creation, the founders of a company need to figure out how many shares to issue, to whom, and in what proportion. Generally, founders issue shares to themselves. Ownership of shares is recorded through share certificates given to the shareholders. As the company continues to grow, it can issue more shares and raise more capital to run its operations.
Now, the questions are:
These topics are exactly what we will talk about in this article. Read on.
What Are the Two Types of a Company?
A company can be of two types: a private limited company and a public limited company. A private limited company is generally closely held and can be managed by families, groups of friends, and business partners. Meanwhile, a public limited company may offer its shares even to the public on a stock exchange.
What Are the Two Types of a Private Limited Company?
Private limited companies are further divided into two types: an exempt private limited company and a merely private limited company.
An exempt private limited company is a very small company. This type of company normally has a significant restriction on the number of shareholders. It is exempted from filing its accounts with ACRA. Its minimum number of shareholders is one and it is not required to have any additional number of shareholders. As far as the maximum number of shareholders is concerned, it cannot have more than 20 shareholders. Shareholding in this company can be with individual shareholders only (and not companies).
A private limited company can have a maximum of 50 shareholders. Its number of shareholders cannot exceed 50; otherwise, it will have to convert itself to a public limited company. Shareholding in this case can be with a corporate entity.
What Is a Public Limited Company?
A public limited company does not have any limit when it comes to the maximum number of shareholders.
What Types of Companies Are Allowed to Have Corporate Shareholders?
A private limited company and public limited company can have corporate shareholders. Meanwhile, an exempt private limited company is not allowed to have any corporate shareholders.
The Verdict
A shareholder is one of the foundations of a company in Singapore. For an exempt private limited company, its minimum number of shareholders is one and its maximum number of shareholders is 20. A private limited company can have 50 shareholders. Lastly, there is no limit to the number of shareholders a public limited company can have.Foreigner Package
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