How many shares should a new company issue?

How many shares should a new company issue? It’s a frequently asked question. There are several common patterns of share ownership in newly formed companies. However, there is also a great amount of flexibility and no absolute right answer on how many new shares to allot.

There are specific rules which apply to a public limited company. A plc must have at least £50,000 nominal value of issued share capital. So, for example, if the nominal value of each ordinary share in a public limited company is £1.00, the company would need to issue at least 50,000 shares before it could trade or borrow money. If the nominal value per share was instead £0.01, then at least 5,000,000 shares would need to be issued.

Larger companies are likely to issue more shares than smaller companies. That will often be the case when they look to raise more capital to fund the business. Although both investors and directors often make loans to the company, it’s more common to find shares issued to match their investments.

The question of how many shares to issue is often most contentious for small and medium sized companies, when between two and five shareholders are involved. We’ll consider an example of a new company with three shareholders looking to take an equal initial shareholding.

It should be simpler for everyone to understand with fewer shares in issue.

At one extreme, each of the three members of the company could be allotted one share each. The benefits are:

• It should be simpler for everyone to understand with fewer shares in issue.
• A small number of allotted shares may make it easier to manage.
• If just a few shares are issued at nominal value, the initial cash required from shareholders is limited.

In practice, this approach is most usually followed where there is no need to raise funds for use by the business. It will often work well when there’s little possibility of the transfer of shares from the initial shareholders or further new shares being issued. If funds are required for the business, it’s still possible for only a few shares to be issued, but each could be allotted for an amount in excess of the nominal or par value. Alternatively, funds could be provided in the form of loans to the company.

A larger number of shares is often preferred where flexibility is required.

At the other end of the spectrum, a company could allot hundreds or even thousands of shares to each of the three proposed shareholders. This approach will also have some benefits:

• The main benefit is flexibility. With, say, 100 shares each, there are options available if one of the shareholders wishes to sell part but not all of their holding to one of the other existing shareholders or to someone else. So they could sell some of their 100 shares while retaining the rest. If, instead, they just had one share, their options are far more limited!
• This flexibility may also be useful when the company chooses to allot more shares. That would include issuing further shares to the existing shareholders or introducing a new shareholder. For example, if the intention at a later date is for one of the three shareholders to be given a slightly greater share in the business, this could be achieved by allotting (say) 10 further shares on top of their existing 100. If instead, each shareholder only had one share, any further share issue to one shareholder would mean they had at least double the shareholding of any other member.
• If funds are needed to operate the business, one option is to issue a larger number of shares at the nominal value or at a premium.
• A company with more shares issued – and a larger aggregate capital value – will appear more substantial than a company with less share capital. The amount of share capital in issue appears on the public record at Companies House. Therefore, potential suppliers and creditors can check it and may make judgements about whether to deal with the company based upon it.
• When considering whether to lend to a company, a bank may prefer to see a number of shares issued and capital committed to the company by its founders. That’s compared with a heavy reliance being placed on the founders making loans to the business. The same is likely to be true of potential shareholders. Why should they buy shares and accept the risk of the company failing if the founders have chosen not to do so?

In both of these examples, the ownership shares are equal. Whether the three shareholders each have one share or one hundred shares, they would retain equal voting rights in the company.

A larger number of shares is often preferred where flexibility is required. However, depending on the precise requirements it may be possible to satisfy that in other ways. Rather than increasing the number of shares in issue, this might include:

• The use of unpaid or partly paid shares rather than fully paid shares.
• Operating multiple share classes, possibly with different rights attached to each.
• Making loans to the business rather than just issuing shares.
• The use of share options or employee share schemes.

The optimum number of shares to issue will ultimately depend on your particular circumstances. A professional adviser can help you assess the available options based on their familiarity with your situation and what you’re looking to achieve by issuing shares.

A previous version of this article was originally published on 12 August 2013.