Founding a Company: Handbook of Legal Forms in Europe

273 Pages·2010·1.37 MB·English

by  Torsten Wulf

Founding a Company

· ·
Michael J. Munkert Stephan Stubner
Torsten Wulf
Editors
Founding a Company
Handbook of Legal Forms in Europe
123
Editors
Dr.MichaelJ.Munkert Dr.StephanStubner
MUNKERT·KUGLER+PARTNERGbR Prof.Dr.TorstenWulf
ÄußereSulzbacherStraße29 HHL–LeipzigGraduateSchoolof
90491Nürnberg Management
Germany ChairofStrategicManagementand
[email protected] Organization
Jahnallee59
04109Leipzig
Germany
[email protected]
[email protected]
ISBN978-3-642-11258-4 e-ISBN978-3-642-11259-1
DOI10.1007/978-3-642-11259-1
SpringerHeidelbergDordrechtLondonNewYork
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2010923235
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Preface
From our daily practice as scholars, consultants and entrepreneurs we know how
critical it is to make the right decisions that can shape the future of a company.
One of the earliest of such decisions is surely the selection of the appropriate
legal form as it is hardly reversible and has major implications on the running
business.
Accordingly, we can find a wealth of information about the pros and cons of
specificlegalforms.However,sofarthereisonlyscarceinformationavailableonce
you decide to enter a foreign market. There are offerings, e.g. from the Chambers
ofCommerceandyoucansearchtheInternet.Wheninformationisprovidedinthe
locallanguage,comprehensionbecomesdifficult.Furthermore,thematerialthatis
availabletodayonlyseldomallowsforastructuredanalysisandcomparisonoflegal
formsindifferentcountries.
From discussions with entrepreneurs we know that this situation has not only
been cumbersome for us, but actually everybody who is thinking about starting
up a business or widening the operations across country borders is faced with the
complextaskofdecidingonalegalform.
WiththishandbookonlegalformsinEuropewestrivetoprovideastartingpoint
forpractitionersandstudentswhoneedtobetterunderstandtheimplicationsofdif-
ferentlegalformsindifferentcountries.Wehaveinvolvedexpertsfromtencountries
thatareassociatedwiththeGenevaGroupInternational,multidisciplinarynetwork
of lawyers, consultants, auditors and tax consultants with 412 offices in 72 coun-
tries. Each expert has provided a thorough introduction into important aspects of
theirnationallegalforms.Tofacilitatecomprehensionandcomparisonweequipped
them with a standard framework to prepare these analyses and to summarize the
findingsinacountry-specificrecommendation.
Manypeoplehelpedustocompilethiswork.Weespeciallywanttoemphasize
the contribution of the participants of the course “Legal aspects in entrepreneur-
ship”atHHL–LeipzigGraduateSchoolofManagementinthespringtermof2008
whowereinstrumentalindiscussingourideasandincompilingthefirstsummaries
for each country: Dominique Ehler, Hans-Christian Erdmann, Emelie Eriksson,
Alexander Hiller, Lucas Kohlmann, Lutz Kregel, Johannes Kreibohm, Kevin Lair,
EdméeLamarre,NikolajdeLousanoff,HenrikMedla,PhilipMeißner,JanisMünch,
VerenaNedorn,MaxRadtke,AlexanderSchlagenhaufer,FredericvonDallwitzand
v
vi Preface
Justus von Grone. In addition, our special thanks go to Katharina Zmich and Kati
Rolederwhoprovidedvitalsupportinadministeringallcontributionsandcompiling
thefinalmanuscript.
Nuremberg,Germany MichaelJ.Munkert
Leipzig,Germany StephanStubner
Leipzig,Germany TorstenWulf
Disclaimer
Theinformationavailableinthishandbookisbasedonthelegalregulationsofthe
year 2009. Each contribution focuses on providing an introduction into the norms
and requirements of a particular country and should be appropriate to make most
decisionsonasuitablelegalform.However,westronglyadvisetoassesseachdeci-
sionprocessindividually,becauseavarietyofotherfactorslikethestrategyofthe
companyorthefinancialbackgroundofthestakeholderscaninfluencetheoptimal
solution.
Especiallywhentalkingaboutthelegalformofacompany,thereisnoone-size-
fits-allapproachthatwecanpresent.Inaddition,althoughweputalotofeffortinto
thepreparationofeacharticle,wemighthavedeviatedfromtheoriginalmeanings
duringthetranslationprocess,orregulationscouldhavechangedovertime.Thus,we
cannottakeanylegalresponsibilityfordecisionsmadeonthebasisofthishandbook
but ask the reader to use it as an introduction for his information needs on legal
forms.
When reading the handbook you will see that we generally use the term “he”
as a neutral denomination for a male or female founder, respectively a founding
company.Thisisdonetofacilitateeasyreadingandcomprehension.
vii

Contents
PartI TheNeedforaBetterUnderstandingofLegalFormsinEurope
1 Cross-BorderOperationsandEnlargementofEuropean
UnionasDrivingForcesforPan-EuropeanExpansionStrategies . 3
TorstenWulfandStephanStubner
1.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.2 StrategicDriversforPan-EuropeanExpansion . . . . . . . . . 5
1.3 ExternalDriversforPan-EuropeanExpansion . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.4 ExpansionExamplesandOutlook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2 Legislatory Need for a Handbook on Legal Forms in
EuropeandSelectionofCountries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
MichaelJ.Munkert
2.1 Differences in Firm Legislation and Need for a
HandbookonLegalFormsinLargerEurope . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.2 ApproachandSelectionofCountries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
PartII LegalFormsofCompanyFoundation
3 Austria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
MichaelJ.MunkertandChristianSeidl
3.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
3.2 DescriptionofRelevantLegalForms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
3.3 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
4 France . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
EmmanuèleLutfallaandMichaelJ.Munkert
4.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
4.2 DescriptionofRelevantLegalForms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
4.3 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
ix