''Aktiebolag'' (, " stock company") is the

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

term for "

limited company In a limited company, the liability of members or subscribers of the company is limited to what they have invested or guaranteed to the company. Limited companies may be limited by shares or by guarantee. In a company limited by shares, the lia ...

" or "

corporation A corporation is an organization—usually a group of people or a company—authorized by the state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law "born out of statute"; a legal person in legal context) and ...

". When used in company names, it is abbreviated AB (in Sweden), Ab (in

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

), or, rarely, A/B (dated), roughly equivalent to the abbreviations ''

Ltd. A private company limited by shares is a class of private limited company incorporated under the laws of England and Wales, Northern Ireland, Scotland, certain Commonwealth countries, and the Republic of Ireland. It has shareholders with limit ...

'' and '' PLC''. The state authority responsible for registration of aktiebolag in Sweden is called the

Swedish Companies Registration Office Swedish Companies Registration Office ( sv, Bolagsverket), is a Swedish government agency which mainly handles the registration of new companies and registry changes for existing businesses, such as change of address and change of board of direct ...

Sweden

All ''aktiebolag'' are divided into two categories:

private limited companies A private limited company is any type of business entity in "private" ownership used in many jurisdictions, in contrast to a publicly listed company, with some differences from country to country. Examples include the '' LLC'' in the United Sta ...

and

public limited companies A public limited company (legally abbreviated to PLC or plc) is a type of public company under United Kingdom company law, some Commonwealth jurisdictions, and the Republic of Ireland. It is a limited liability company whose shares may be free ...

. The name of a private limited company may not contain the word ''publikt'' ("public") and the name of a public limited company may not contain the word ''privat'' or ''pvt.'' ("private").

Public

A public limited company (''publikt aktiebolag'') is legally denoted as "AB (publ.)" in Sweden or "Abp" in Finland. A Swedish public limited company must have a minimum share capital of 500,000 Swedish kronor and its shares can be offered to the general public on the stock market. The suffix "(publ.)" is sometimes omitted in texts of an informal nature, but according to the Swedish Companies Registration Office, "the name of a public limited company must be mentioned with the term (publ.) after the business name in the articles of association and elsewhere", unless it is clearly understood from the company’s business name that the company is a public limited company.Limited Company. New company registration
. I
''Information about limited liability company''
, Bolagsverket (The Swedish Companies Registration Office). Retrieved 16 September 2008.

Private

For a private limited company in Sweden (''privat aktiebolag''), the minimum share capital is 25,000 Swedish kronor. The main Swedish statutes regulating limited companies are The Companies Act (''Aktiebolagslagen'' (ABL) 2005:551) and The Limited Companies Ordinance (''Aktiebolagsförordningen'' 2005:559). The law provisions in ABL stipulate that parent companies and subsidiaries are separate legal persons and legal entities.Action brought on 25 June 2008 — Commission of the European Communities v Kingdom of Sweden (Case C-274/08)(2008/C 236/10)
Official Journal of the European Union, 13 September 2008. Retrieved 16 September 2008.

Examples

The abbreviation AB is seen in company names such as EA Digital Illusions CE AB, Ericsson AB,

MySQL AB MySQL AB was a Swedish software company founded in 1995. It was acquired by Sun Microsystems in 2008, Sun was in turn acquired by Oracle Corporation in 2010. MySQL AB is the creator of MySQL, a relational database management system, as well as ...

, Mojang AB, Spotify AB,

Scania AB Scania AB is a major Swedish manufacturer headquartered in Södertälje, focusing on commercial vehicles—specifically heavy lorries, trucks and buses. It also manufactures diesel engines for heavy vehicles as well as marine and general ind ...

, Hi3G Access AB, and originally, Svenska Aeroplan AB (SAAB). Other companies have included this into their abbreviated trading name, for example

SSAB SSAB AB, earlier ''Svenskt Stål AB'' (English: Swedish Steel), () is a Swedish company, formed in 1978, that specialises in processing raw material to produce steel. The largest shareholders are Aktiebolag Industrivärden and the Government of ...

AB (formerly Svenskt Stål AB),

HIAB Hydrauliska Industri AB (HIAB) is a Swedish manufacturer of loader cranes, demountable container handlers, forestry cranes, truck-mounted forklifts and tail lifts. The company is owned by the Cargotec Corporation. History The name, Hiab, co ...

(Hydrauliska Industri AB),

ESAB ESAB, ''Elektriska Svetsnings-Aktiebolaget'' ( en, Electric Welding Limited company), is an American Swedish industrial company. The ultimate parent company of ESAB is ESAB Corporation, a New York Stock Exchange listed (TickerESAB with its princ ...

(Elektriska Svetsnings-Aktiebolaget) and

LKAB Luossavaara-Kiirunavaara Aktiebolag (LKAB) is a government owned Swedish mining company. The company mines iron ore at Kiruna and at Malmberget in northern Sweden. The company was established in 1890, and has been 100% state-owned since the 195 ...

(Luossavaara-Kiirunavaara Aktiebolag).

Finland

The term ''aktiebolag'' is also used in Finland Swedish, alongside the

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

''osakeyhtiö''; the choice and ordering of terms tends to indicate the company's primary working language.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Swedish Companies Registration Office
Types of business entity Economy of Sweden Law of Sweden