The Shareholders' Right to See Information Related To the Liquidation of Public Joint Stock Companies

Abstract

The liquidation of the company is either voluntary or mandatory. Whatever the type of liquidation, it is considered to be of great importance and danger in view of the operations it is based on – and the consequences it leads to – that touch the essence of the shareholders' rights in the company, in addition to being the same with respect to the rights of others.The liquidation of joint stock companies is based on complex and intertwined procedures, in order to limit the company’s assets, which vary between movable money (cash or debt owed by others), immovable money, as well as limiting its liabilities to liquidate its assets in kind and collect its money from debts owed by others and then pay what it owes to others, leading to the division of the liquidation surplus – if there is a surplus – among the company's shareholders. And if the representation of the company during its life is entrusted to its board of directors, its managers and whomever its board of directors may choose from delegates, then despite the continuity of its board of directors and its auditor, however, as soon as a decision is issued to liquidate the company, that representative capacity ceases, and the liquidator becomes the only person with the capacity to represent the company. The company is involved in all actions required for liquidation and in cases in which the company is a party.Based on this, and in view of what the liquidation process may result in infringing the rights of shareholders, and that the company often includes a large number of shareholders, many of whom are separate from the company, by nature, the importance of the study becomes obvious and evident, as one of the simplest requirements for preserving their rights is for them to be acquainted with the course of that process to the extent that they can protect their rights in the company.Accordingly, the study dealt with the issue of legal regulation to inform shareholders of the liquidation process, and the adequacy of the legal texts regulating this subject, to provide the necessary protection for those rights, which are determined according to the information available to them. This, of course, regardless the fact that the large number of shareholders of the company, and the large number of those who may be asked to obtain information related to the liquidation, may hinder the liquidation process, a matter which is dealt with in the present study, and the extent of the balance established by the legislator between the two mentioned considerations. The study's significance is also due to the fact that it tries to organize the shareholders’ access to the information related to the liquidation process and the nature and limits of that information, taking into consideration the issues that this may require, including addressing the issues that must be addressed while we are in the process of researching the legal regulation to inform the shareholders of the course of the liquidation process, such as the issue of selecting the liquidator.Thus, the study was divided into two main topics. In the first topic, the researcher dealt with the issue of informing shareholders at the start of liquidation, which is divided into two parts. The selection of the liquidator and its commitment to inform about the liquidation process was the focus of the research in the first section, while the researchers devoted the second section to the liquidator’s commitment to informing during the liquidation stage. The second topic, on the other hand, is devoted to examining the liquidator's commitment to informing when the liquidation is completed. It is divided into two sections. In the first section, the researcher dealt with the liquidator's obligation to submit a final account of the liquidation work, while we dealt with its commitment to announce the conclusion of the liquidation work in the second section of this topic.