What is a member and shareholder in a Company Formation Ireland?

What is a member and shareholder in a Company Formation Ireland?

What is a member and shareholder in a Company Formation in Ireland? Lets look at their rights. A member is a company owners who appears on the register of members of the company. A shareholder within a company is someone who buys and owns (Holds) shares within the company which can be sold also. The shareholder will become a member once their name is entered into the register of members. Companies who do not have shares for example CLG’s Company Limited by guarantee, do not have shareholders, only members.

The companies constitution sets out the rights of shareholders and the rules. Voting rights may vary from company to company, for example, in some companies the voting rights are one share equals one vote. On other constitutions, voting rights are allocated to different classes of shares. Some classes of shares may not have any voting rights.What is a member and shareholder in an Company Formation Ireland?

Members may have limitations on the transfer of shares. In some constitutions the members may need to approve the transfer of shares. For example a member who wants to sell a portion or all of their shares may be blocked by doing so by the other members if they do not approve of the person the shares are being transferred to.

The main duty of members is to supervise the directors of the company to ensure the health and compliance of the company accounts, and to protect their interests.  The members have the right to request copies of the companies documents, the constitution, resolutions, meeting minutes etc. All members have the right to receive the notice of meetings. They have the right to attend AGMs (Annual General Meetings) and EGMs. (Extraordinary general meetings)

The members can decide to wind up the company by vote. a vote of 75% of those attending an EGM is required, or 50% plus one if the company is unable to pay its debts. The Office of the Director of corporate enforcement has a short PDF Guide on this topic.