Meaning & use
share capital
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Meanings
noununcountablefinance
The total amount of money a company has raised by selling shares to its owners, recorded as part of its funding.
Grammar: Not used in the plural in normal use: the company's share capital is small.
Patterns
- share capital of an amount
- increase share capital
The firm began with share capital of fifty thousand pounds.
The board voted to increase its share capital to fund the new factory.
Share capital appears on the left side of the balance sheet in the owners' section.
noununcountablebusiness
The shares themselves, considered as the ownership stake that investors hold in a business.
Grammar: Often used with issued or authorized.
Patterns
- issued share capital
- authorized share capital
Her family holds most of the company's issued share capital.
The authorized share capital was larger than what was actually sold.
New investors bought a quarter of the share capital.
Common combinations
- issued share capital
- The issued share capital is listed in the annual report.
- raise share capital
- The start-up raised share capital from three investors.
- increase share capital
- They plan to increase share capital next year.
- authorized share capital
- The authorized share capital limits how many shares can be issued.
- reduce share capital
- The court approved a plan to reduce share capital.
Synonyms and how they differ
- capital stock
- This is the usual American phrase and means almost the same thing.
- equity capital
- This is broader, since it can include retained profits as well as money from selling shares.
- paid-up capital
- This is narrower, covering only the part of share capital that shareholders have actually paid.
Opposites
Word family
- share noun
- one unit of ownership in a company
- shareholder noun
- a person who owns shares
- capital noun
- money used to run or start a business
- capitalize verb
- to provide a business with money
Commonly confused: share capital or share price?
share capital vs share price
Share price is what one share costs on the market, while share capital is the total raised from selling shares.
Practice
A company sells shares worth two million dollars to investors. That money is its...
Choose one answer.
Share capital is the money raised by selling shares. A dividend is a payment to shareholders, and share price is the cost of one share.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “share capital”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.