Development of the Collective Nature of the Joint-Stock Company As the Basis for Changing Attitudes Towards Its Minority Shareholders

Abstract

The historically collective character of the capital of the joint-stock company developed in the direction of the growth of the number of joint-stock companies and the associated increase in the number of shareholders and the number of shares to be issued. In modern conditions, the possibilities for a quantitative increase in the size of the share capital have already exhausted themselves sufficiently. There are qualitative changes associated with the deepening of the collective character of such capital. On the one hand, there is the emergence of this type of minority shareholders, behind which in fact are hiding large funds of collective investment. On the other hand, this is expressed in the processes of internationalization of jointstock companies and their transformation into transnational companies, i.e. when the composition of shareholders becomes more and more international. The national share market of one and the same company is turning into a global market because these shares through the issue of depositary receipts are able to address the stock markets of any other countries of the world. Owners of depositary receipts, like collective investors, often fall into the category of minority shareholders due to the fact that they have small blocks of shares. The collective and international nature of minority shareholders is an objective basis for the need to protect the rights of such shareholders already at the legislative level.