Meaning & use
sole shareholder
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Meanings
nouncountablebusinessfinance
A person or company that owns all the shares in a company.
Grammar: Countable; use a/an or the before it, and it has a plural: sole shareholders.
Patterns
- be the sole shareholder of something
- become a sole shareholder
- a company's sole shareholder
After buying out her partner, she became the sole shareholder of the business.
The sole shareholder must approve any change to the company's articles.
As sole shareholder, he controls every vote at the general meeting.
nouncountablebusinessfinance
A single owner who holds every voting share, giving full control of the company.
Grammar: Often used after 'the' when the person is already known: the sole shareholder signed the deal.
Patterns
- the sole shareholder of a company
- appoint someone as sole shareholder
The sole shareholder can appoint and remove directors at will.
When the founder died, his daughter became the sole shareholder overnight.
Word forms
| plural | sole shareholders |
|---|
Common combinations
- the sole shareholder of the company
- The sole shareholder of the company lives abroad.
- become the sole shareholder
- He became the sole shareholder after the merger.
- the company's sole shareholder
- The company's sole shareholder rejected the offer.
- a sole shareholder structure
- Many small firms use a sole shareholder structure to keep control simple.
- the rights of a sole shareholder
- The contract spells out the rights of a sole shareholder.
Synonyms and how they differ
- sole owner
- Focuses on owning the business itself, not specifically on holding all the shares; use it for unincorporated businesses.
- majority shareholder
- This person owns more than half the shares but not all of them, so it is weaker than sole shareholder.
- controlling shareholder
- This person can direct company decisions through voting power, which may be less than full ownership.
Opposites
Word family
- shareholder noun
- A person who owns one or more shares in a company.
- shareholding noun
- The shares that a person owns, or the act of owning them.
- share noun
- One of the equal units of ownership into which a company's capital is divided.
Commonly confused: sole shareholder or stakeholder? sole shareholder or sole trader?
sole shareholder vs stakeholder
A stakeholder is anyone affected by a company, such as workers or customers, not necessarily an owner of shares.
sole shareholder vs sole trader
A sole trader is one person running an unincorporated business; a sole shareholder owns shares in a company, which is a separate legal entity.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'sole shareholder' correctly?
Choose one answer.
'The sole shareholder' is the standard form when the person is identified; 'a sole shareholder' is possible but less natural for a unique role, while 'sole shareholder' without an article and the plural 'shareholders' do not fit one person.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “sole shareholder”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.