Common stock

The term ordinary share ( engl. voting share or common stock ) refers to the property of a stock to be subject to voting rights. The counterpart of an ordinary share is the preferred stock has no voting rights, but is treated in the balance preferably eg dividends.

Together with the sum of the nominal values ​​of the emitted ( output ) preference shares is the sum of the par value of the issued ordinary shares, the share capital.

Voting right

Each ordinary share carries the right of a shareholder to vote at general meetings of the company. Here, each ordinary share is assigned one vote, multiple voting rights are prohibited by the German Stock Corporation Act. The Minister of Economic Affairs of the Länder may authorize exceptions to this rule, to the extent necessary to safeguard overriding macroeconomic concerns.

While a pooling of voting rights by a shareholder agreement or securities lending today is comparatively simple, is even promoted by eg shareholder forums, this used to be inadmissible; so called for the Securities Act of 1937, that " ... who used to exercise the voting ... shares of another, he has gained for that purpose by granting or promise of special benefits ... may be punished by a fine of up to 100,000 Reichsmarks. "