Shareholders' Rights & Shareholder Activism 2025

1. Types of Company, Share Classes and Shareholdings

1.1 Types of Company

The main (and most common) types of companies that can be formed in Switzerland are:

• the stock corporation (Aktiengesellschaft, AG); and
• the limited liability company (LLC) (Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung, GmbH).

However, the stock corporation is much more com­mon than the LLC.

Both company types enjoy limited liability to the effect that only the company's assets are liable for com­pany debts (ie, not the private assets of the respective shareholder(s)); therefore, shareholders do not lose their private assets in the event of bankruptcy.

Shares of stock corporations can be publicly listed, whereas quota shares of LLCs cannot be traded pub­licly.