Equity is the right of shareholders, which can be divided into broad sense and narrow sense. Broadly speaking, equity refers to all kinds of rights that shareholders can claim from the company; In a narrow sense, equity only refers to the right of shareholders to obtain economic benefits from the company and participate in the company's operation and management based on shareholder qualification.
Generally speaking, equity refers to the rights enjoyed by investors because of their partnership with citizens and investment in enterprise legal persons.
When investing in a partnership organization, the shareholders bear unlimited liability; When investing in a legal person, shareholders shall bear limited liability. Therefore, although both are equity, there are still differences.
The contents of the ownership of corporate investors mainly include: shareholders only have the right to bear civil liability within the scope of investment; Shareholders have the right to participate in the formulation and revision of the articles of association of legal persons; Shareholders have the right to be the company manager themselves or to decide on the candidate for the company manager; Have the right to attend the shareholders' meeting and decide on major issues of legal persons; Have the right to receive dividends from enterprise legal persons; Shareholders have the right to transfer their shares according to law; Have the right to recover the remaining property after the termination of the legal person. These rights come from shareholders' rights to invest in legal persons.
The equity of the investors in the partnership organization has exactly the same rights, except for the first one mentioned above.
Equity, legal person property rights and partnership organization property rights all come from the ownership of investment property. The purpose of investors' investment in the investee is to make a profit, that is, to hand over the property to the investee and bear civil liability, rather than to hand over the property to the investee. Therefore, the property rights of legal persons and partnership organizations are limited authorization. The right granted is the property right of the investor. If you don't grant it, the rights reserved in your own hands and the rights derived from it are equity. Both are incomplete ownership. Investor's property right mainly reflects the external form of investment property ownership, while equity mainly represents the core content of investment property ownership.
The relationship between enterprise property rights and equity has the following points:
First, equity and enterprise property rights are produced at the same time, both of which are legal consequences of investment.
2. Generally speaking, equity determines the property rights of legal persons, but there are also special and exceptions. Because the shareholders' meeting is the right institution of the enterprise legal person, the resolutions it makes determine that the legal person must implement it. These resolutions and decisions are the concentrated expression of investors' exercise of equity. Therefore, in general, equity determines the property rights of legal persons. Equity is the core and soul of enterprise property rights. However, when a legal person assumes civil liability, it does not need the approval and recognition of the shareholders' meeting. This is the exception that the company's property rights are not dominated by equity. This is also an inevitable requirement of the legal person system.
Third, in a sense, equity can also be said to be the control right of a legal person. Obtain 0/00% equity of enterprise legal person/kloc, that is, obtain 0/00% control right of enterprise legal person/kloc. The equity is in the hands of the state, and the enterprise legal person will eventually be controlled by the state; The equity is in the hands of citizens, and the enterprise legal person will eventually be controlled by citizens; The equity is in the hands of the parent company, and the enterprise legal person will eventually be controlled by the parent company. This is an indisputable social reality at all times and in all countries.
Four, the transfer of equity will lead to the overall transfer of enterprise property ownership, but it has nothing to do with enterprise property rights. The form of the overall transfer of an enterprise and its property is the overall transfer of its equity. The transfer of all shares means a big change of blood among the members of the shareholders' meeting, which means the change of the ownership of enterprise property. However, the full transfer of equity will not affect the change of registered capital of the enterprise, and will not affect the fixed assets and working capital used by the enterprise; Will not prevent legal persons from bearing civil liability with their property. Therefore, the property rights of legal persons will not change because of the transfer of equity.