When thinking about starting a business, a future entrepreneur must decide on the form of ownership of his company.
In the modern economy, there are quite a few organizational forms for conducting commercial activities. One of them is OJSC, or Open Joint Stock Company.
OJSC, or Open Joint Stock Company, is a form of organization of an enterprise, the capital of which is formed by, and shareholders have the right to freely dispose of their shares - sell, buy, donate, etc.
The legislation defines such an enterprise as public, that is, information on its activities should be available to the general public, who may become shareholders in the future. The number of shareholders of an OJSC is limited only by the number of shares issued and present on the market.
An important feature of an OJSC is that there is no requirement to deposit the entire amount of the authorized capital into the account of the enterprise before its registration - funds will be received as the issued shares are sold.
Open joint stock companies can operate in all areas of activity permitted by law. They have the right to engage in trade, industrial production, organizing music shows or teaching cutting and sewing. It is important that the activities of the JSC do not conflict with the law. 
In fact, an OJSC is the same company as any other, the only difference is that it has many owners. Therefore, to manage current activities, the company hires a director or several directors who form a collegial body - the board of directors.
However, the highest authority in an OJSC is the meeting of shareholders, which is held at least once a year.
The main difference between an OJSC and an LLC is the scale of activity. To open an LLC (limited liability company), you need to contribute an authorized capital of only 10 thousand rubles, and in total no more than 50 people can become founders of the LLC. The number of co-owners of an OJSC is not limited, and its authorized capital must be no less than 1,000 minimum wages.
Another difference is the possibility of alienating shares. The co-owner of an OJSC can get rid of them at any moment without informing other shareholders. 
An LLC participant must first offer his share in the enterprise to the co-owners, and only if they refuse to buy it can he offer the acquisition to third parties.
Closed Joint Stock Company (CJSC) is a fairly common type of enterprise organization, characteristic of family companies. Its main difference from an OJSC is that it is closed: the shares of the enterprise belong only to the founders, and none of them has the right to transfer them to third parties.
If one of the co-owners decides to leave the business, he can only sell his share to the remaining owners. CJSCs have the right not to publish their reports and operate in a regime closed to the general public, while JSCs are required to annually announce the results of their activities in the press.
PJSC (Public Joint Stock Company) is a company whose shares are publicly listed on the stock market, and the results of its activities become known to the general public. Since the beginning of September 2014, the law of the Russian Federation came into force, introducing changes to some names and legal relations of legal forms of enterprise registration.
In fact, a PJSC is the same form of enterprise organization as an OJSC, but instead of “open,” the company should be called “public.” Within a certain time, all existing JSCs must undergo re-registration as PJSC. 
After this, the conduct of business should become even more open: maintaining the register of shares and their owners is transferred from the legal department of the OJSC to special registrars, and every decision of the shareholders’ meeting must be certified by either a registrar or a notary.
This decision should promote greater transparency in business operations and discourage attempts at raider takeovers of enterprises.
Public joint stock company is one of the key concepts of the new classification of business companies. It is distinguished by openness and transparency of investment processes, an unlimited number of shareholders, and more stringent regulations on corporate procedures. It is this form of ownership that most of the largest organizations in the Russian Federation choose.
The concept of “public joint-stock company (PJSC)” is relatively new in the civil legislation of Russia (introduced on September 1, 2014). It denotes a form of organization of a public company whose shareholders have the right to alienate their shares. Its main differences are
The definition of “public” means that this type The JSC must adhere to a policy of more complete disclosure of information compared to non-public disclosure. This helps to increase the transparency and attractiveness of investment processes (shares are placed and circulated among a wide range of people).
The structure of PJSC can be represented as follows (see Fig. 1)
To understand the features of the creation and activities of a PJSC, let’s compare it with other types of joint stock companies and consider examples of existing organizations with this form of ownership.
Since regulations contain several concepts that are close to each other in meaning, even among specialists in corporate law, debates about their legal interpretation continue. Many questions concern the differences between “new” PJSC and “old” OJSC. At first glance, “only the name has changed,” but this is not so (see Table 1)
| Comparison options | ||
|---|---|---|
| Disclosure |
|
|
| Advantage for purchasing shares and securities | It was possible to reflect in the charter the advantage of purchasing free shares by existing shareholders and security holders | |
| Maintaining a register, having a counting commission | It was allowed to maintain the register of shareholders on their own | The register is maintained by third-party organizations that have a license for this type of activity; the registrar is independent |
| Control | A board of directors was required if the number of shareholders exceeded 50 people | It is mandatory to form a collegial body of at least 5 members |
Thus, although the changes related to public joint stock companies do not seem fundamental, ignorance of them can significantly complicate the life of entrepreneurs who have chosen this form of corporatization.
From the point of view of a non-specialist, a public joint-stock company in its own words is a former OJSC, and a non-public company is a former CJSC, but this is an overly simplified vision. Let's consider what rules apply in the new classification of business entities to organizations of different legal status:
The renaming procedure is carried out by replacing words in the name of the organization. Next, the charter should be revised, especially as it relates to the board of directors and the rights to benefits when purchasing shares, and brought into compliance with the provisions of the legislation on public joint-stock companies.
The Civil Code states that the rules on public companies are applicable only to joint-stock companies whose charter and corporate name clearly indicate that they are public. These rules do not apply to other legal entities.
The largest representatives of this form of ownership regularly top the rankings of the richest organizations in the country and the world. Here are a few legal entities included in the TOP-10 RBC rating for 2015:
The leader of the Russian banking system occupies a leading position in the credit rating. In 2018, in terms of key indicators (assets, capital, loan portfolio, profit, deposits of individuals, investments in securities), Sberbank PJSC ranks first among Russian banks. But what does the name PJSC Sberbank mean, and how does it stand for it?
The bank has changed its legal form Renaming from OJSC to PJSC Sberbank means a change in the organizational and legal form of the financial organization. The procedure was related to state requirements and was enshrined in law.
PJSC Sberbank, whose abbreviation is a public joint-stock company, officially changed its form of ownership on August 4, 2015. This operation must be carried out by all JSCs, in accordance with the amendments made to the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. There are no cut-off dates for the procedure; it all depends on the specific enterprise.
The government justifies this need by increasing control over all JSCs. In particular, this applies to mandatory annual audit of the company's accounting department. It is believed that the procedure will minimize or eliminate the risk of conducting “black”, double accounting.
Structure of a Public Joint Stock Company The main difference between a PJSC is that there are no restrictions on the number of shares owned by one citizen.
Other differences between OJSC and PJSC include:
But there are no significant differences between forms of ownership.
Changing the abbreviation indicates greater responsibility to citizens This re-registration occurs in conjunction with amendments to the Charter, therefore, relevant clauses were added to the Bank’s Charter, explaining the principles of relationships under the new organizational form, and irrelevant sections were removed. Two copies of it, the minutes of the shareholders' meeting and a statement of the established form were transferred to the tax service, as prescribed for the procedure. After the official name change, financial institution completed the following mandatory actions:
The main differences between a Public Joint Stock Company and an Open Joint Stock Company After changing the form of ownership, the bank details changed (OJSC to PJSC), but INN, BIC, OGRN, correspondent accounts, addresses and telephone numbers remained the same. After the new name comes into force, a number of documents (settlement, administrative, accounts) containing the previous name are not taken into account as illegal. The changes do not apply to such situations.
Hello! A legal entity can exist only on the basis of a certain form of ownership. Until September 2014, the legislation of the Russian Federation recognized three types of organizations: LLC, OJSC and CJSC. However, changes in the Civil Code of the Russian Federation that occurred on the basis of Federal Law No. 99 of 05/05/2014 introduced some adjustments. So, if the form of ownership of a legal entity was previously called OJSC, now it is called PJSC, and JSC has replaced CJSC. We have already written about.
From the moment the above law comes into force, all legal entities that existed as OJSC can re-register and become PJSC. The legislator has not established a time frame for such a procedure, so all that is needed is to make the appropriate changes to the charter and contact the tax office.
is a public joint stock company. This form of ownership for a legal entity means that securities issued by the organization can be freely available to everyone, as well as participate in circulation on the securities market. Moreover, there are no restrictions regarding the question of how many shares one shareholder can have.
One more distinctive feature existence of PJSC is that the issue of so-called prolonged shares, the nominal price of which was an order of magnitude lower than the others, was cancelled. In addition, the activities of PJSC must become public. This means that meetings of company shareholders should become more frequent, and any decisions they make are now notarized, audits are carried out more often, with the participation of independent specialists. The results of such checks must be published and accessible.
Thus, the activities of PJSC have become strictly regulated. The legislator has not established any specific deadlines during which an OJSC must change to a PJSC; however, legal entities operating in this form of ownership are required to make certain changes to the documentation.
– limited liability company. In other words, it is a form of ownership of a commercial organization created by one or two legal or individuals for the purpose of making a profit. In practice, LLC is more common than PJSC. This circumstance is due to the fact that the form of ownership in the form of an LLC is characterized by ease of creation. All that is needed is the decision of the organization, the presence of a charter, and the creation of an authorized capital.
It would be useful to note that it is created through the contributions of the company participants themselves and is divided into shares. Exists minimum size such capital, which is established by law and is equal to the amount of one hundred times the minimum wage.
All activities of the LLC are strictly regulated by Federal Law No. 14-FZ of 02/08/1998. And Civil Code RF.
The main features of LLC include the following points:
The features of PJSC include:
| Main differences | OOO | |
|
Number of founders |
At least 1, but not more than 50 | Any |
| Amount of authorized capital | At least 10,000 rubles |
At least 100,000 rubles |
| Participants | It can only be changed with the obligatory participation of a notary, who certifies the fact of alienation of the participants. The data is entered into . This procedure is expensive |
Shareholders can sell their shares freely. However, information about such transactions is not subject to notarization and is entered only in the register of shareholders of the company |
| Information about the composition of meeting participants | Confirmed by the participants unanimously |
Confirmed by a special registrar body. The procedure is expensive |
|
Mandatory actions after registration |
Mandatory maintenance of a list of organization members, which is distinguished by its simplicity |
Without mandatory registration shares, all transactions with the company's securities are prohibited. Registration of shareholders is constantly maintained by the registrar, which requires constant payment |
| Possibility of increasing the authorized capital |
Eat. The procedure is simple |
Eat. Only after registration of the next issue of securities |
|
Publicity |
Not required to publish reports |
Annual reporting must be publicly available |
|
Closing procedure |
Complex. May take 3-4 months |
Complex. Takes a long time |
As noted earlier, each of these forms of legal entity ownership has its own pros and cons. It is impossible to say with exact certainty which one is better. Because in the case of an LLC it is easier to form an authorized capital, the activity does not require publicity, but this form of ownership does not allow entering the world market in the near future. It will take years to achieve this goal.
When organizing a Public Joint Stock Company, we are talking about companies that want to acquire not only a solid income, but also a corresponding reputation. With PJSC it is much easier to attract investors.
However, this form of ownership is not suitable for everyone. The issue of securities and their registration with the relevant authority is an expensive procedure. Investing capital in a PJSC is long-term in nature and implies obtaining a large amount of profit, but after several years.
