Glossary

Shares in a company

The individual units a shareholder owns in a company.

Restricted voting shares

Shares that either only get to vote in certain circumstances or, more commonly, shares that have less than one vote per share. (refer to a company’s prospectus for details)

Non-Voting shares

Shares that do not get to vote at company meetings. Generally these trade at a discount to equivalent voting shares. (refer to a company’s prospectus)

Close company

Typically, a company controlled by five or fewer investors but in the definition of what constitutes an investment trust. It is a company where less than 30% of the shares are in public hands

Assets – of a company

All the things the company owns including shares, bonds, property, cash and money that is owed to it

Zero dividend preference shares

Zero dividend preference shares (ZDP) are Shares that will be redeemed at a fixed price at some defined point in the future (provided that sufficient assets are available). Their entitlement to the assets of the company rises in a straight line between their entitlement on issue and their redemption value. They are not entitled to […]

Treasury shares

Shares bought back by a company and held on its balance sheet rather than being cancelled. Treasury shares are not included in calculations of net asset value and market capitalisation.

Shares in issue

All the shares of a company that could be traded on a stock exchange.

Redeemable shares

Shares designed to be bought back easily by a company (in practice, as rules around buy-backs have eased, Redeemable Shares are not much different to ordinary shares).

Investment company

A company that is set up to make investments on behalf of its shareholders (also called a closed-end fund and, in specific circumstances, an investment trust). Legally, an investment company is any company whose business consists wholly or partly in the making of investments. All investment trusts are investment companies but not all investment companies […]

Concert party

The Takeover Code has a concept called ‘acting in concert’. Persons acting in concert form a ‘concert party’. The technical definition (from the Takeover Panel’s website) is given below, but basically it means people or businesses that are acting together to control a company or block a takeover attempt. Acting in concert This definition has […]

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Glossary

Shares in a company