Grib, V.V. Legal position of the minority shareholders

Abstract: The object of studies in this article concerns the analysis of the position of minority shareholders in the companies. This issue requires studying due to the fact that lately legislation attempts to provide minority shareholders with additional protection of the rights and the guarantees of implementation of the rights that they have. Due to this fact in the opinion of the author it is necessary to find out what are the specificities of the minority shareholders in the joint stock company. The article concerns all of the risks, which the minority shareholders face in joint stock companies. When writing this article the author used the following approaches: systemic method, comparative method, formal legal method and comparative legal method. When studying the legal position of the minority shareholders the author came to the following conclusions. Firstly, the main problem in the position of minority shareholders in a joint stock companies is a fact that a joint stock company is perceived as a single entity and not as a community of different shareholders. That is why the shareholders need to establish the joint position as a will of joint stock company. In the process of forming of a common will of the company the shareholders may have irreconcilable differences. In such a situations the minority shareholders have no opportunity to insist on their opinion. Secondly, the majority shareholders may act in abuse of the rights of minority shareholders. Thirdly, in spite of the fact that minority shareholders have invested less money into a joint stock company their basic rights should not be abridged and the state should provide additional guarantees.

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