Share of theBanque de Montreux, issued 20 November 1900.Sociétés anonymes were common in Switzerland at this time.
The abbreviationS.A. orSA[a] designates a type ofpublic limited company in certain countries, most of which have aRomance language as their official language and operate a derivative of the 1804, Napoleonic,civil law.[1] Originally,shareholders could be anonymous and collectdividends by surrenderingcoupons attached to theirshare certificates. Dividends were paid to whoever held the certificate. Since share certificates could be transferred privately, corporate management would not necessarily know who owned its shares – nor did anyone but the holders.
As withbearer bonds, anonymous unregistered share ownership and dividend collection enabledmoney laundering,tax evasion, and concealed business transactions in general, so governments passed laws to audit the practice. Nowadays, shareholders of S.A.s are not anonymous, though shares can still be held by aholding company to obscure the beneficiary.
Sociedad Anónima orSociedad por Acciones inSpanish
Mexican law also takes into account the variability of the corporate stock, resulting in most S.A. turning intoSociedad Anónima de Capital Variable (S.A. de C.V.), orSociedad Anónima Bursátil de Capital Variable (S.A.B. de C.V.) forpublicly traded companies.
Mexico also hasSociedad de Responsabilidad Limitada de Capital Variable (S. de R.L. de C.V.), which is analogous to thelimited liability company.
"SA" has been incorporated into the names of some companies derived fromacronyms, such asCepsa, originallyCompañía Española de Petróleos, Sociedad Anónima, "Spanish petroleum company, S.A.",[4] andSabena, originallySocieté anonyme belge d'Exploitation de la Navigation aérienne, "Belgian S.A. of exploitation of air navigation".
Publicly traded company ("public company") orIncorporated (Inc.) in the United States, though the former term does not appear in the names of business entities
^"26 CFR 301.7701-2 – Business entities; definitions. | US Law | LII / Legal Information Institute".Legal Information Institute.Archived from the original on 2020-11-07. Retrieved2018-03-05.(v)Multilingual countries. Different linguistic renderings of the name of an entity listed in paragraph (b)(8)(i) of this section shall be disregarded. For example, an entity formed under the laws of Switzerland as aSociete Anonyme will be a corporation and treated in the same manner as anAktiengesellschaft.
