Selskap med begrenset ansvar, with short form BA, is a Norwegian term for a corporation comparable to a

limited liability company A limited liability company (LLC for short) is the US-specific form of a private limited company. It is a business structure that can combine the pass-through taxation of a partnership or sole proprietorship with the limited liability of a ...

. Meaning literally ''Company with limited liability'', it is a type of corporate structure used in

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

for limited companies based on a co-operative structure.

Legal framework

Unlike the

aksjeselskap ''Aksjeselskap'' is the Norwegian term for a stock-based company. It is usually abbreviated AS, historically often written as A/S. An AS is always a limited company, i.e. the owners cannot be held liable for any debt beyond the stock capital. P ...

(AS), a regular

stock In finance, stock (also capital stock) consists of all the shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided.Longman Business English Dictionary: "stock - ''especially AmE'' one of the shares into which ownership of a company ...

-based limited company, the BA is structured either as a Særlovsselskap, a company founded under a particular act of legislature or as a

cooperative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-control ...

. In the latter case, the limitations and legal framework is set out in the imited Liability Companies Actof 1997 ss 1-1(3).3, a Norwegian Act of Parliament relating to limited liability companies covering: "companies formed in order to promote the members' consumer or professional interests or companies formed to secure employment for the members"

Difference from an AS company

The most notable difference between a regular limited company (AS) and a BA is that while the distribution of profits in an AS in general follows the ownership (N% of the shares receive N% of the distributed profits), the distribution of profits in a BA must in general follow the members shares of the revenues of the company. Typically someone representing N% of the revenues of a BA company will receive N% of the profits (standard consumer co-operative distribution of profits). The Legislation Department of the Norwegian Ministry of Justice and the Police have indicated that a minor percentage of profits distributed based upon ownership may still be accepted.

Usage

The most prominent uses of BA companies are in local

Coop Coop, COOP, Co-op, or ''variation'', most often refers to: * A chicken coop or other enclosure * Cooperative or co-operative ("co-op"), an association of persons who cooperate for their mutual social, economic, and cultural benefit ** Housing ...

retail cooperatives and the agriculture cooperatives. Formerly a number of state enterprises were BA companies, including the

Norwegian State Railways Vygruppen, branded as Vy, is a government-owned railway company which operates most passenger train services and many bus services in Norway. The company is owned by the Norwegian Ministry of Transport. Its sub-brands include Vy Buss coach se ...

, the

Postal Service The mail or post is a system for physically transporting postcards, letters, and parcels. A postal service can be private or public, though many governments place restrictions on private systems. Since the mid-19th century, national postal syst ...

and

Postbanken Postbanken (lit. The Postal Bank) was a Norway, Norwegian postal savings bank. The bank offered its services through the Posten (Norway), Norwegian post office. It was first merged into DNB ASA as a subsidiary, and then dissolved in 2011. Histor ...

. All of these have been converted to AS's. Types of companies of Norway {{Norway-company-stub