Difference between Public Company and GBM's??

[deeman12]

I think I know the difference but want to be sure.

1. A public company is one which has gone public on the sharemarket and in which shares can be purchased on the Secondary Market.

2. A Government Business Enterprise of course being a publicly owned company...this meaning that the Goverment has a majority stake in it.

3. A private company on the other hand has not had an Initial Public Offering and is owned privately by up to 50 people.

Is that right? The use of the word public in the first two adds elements of ambiguity.

 

[Eagle87]

I think I know the difference but want to be sure.

1. A public company is one which has gone public on the sharemarket and in which shares can be purchased on the Secondary Market.

2. A Government Business Enterprise of course being a publicly owned company...this meaning that the Goverment has a majority stake in it.

3. A private company on the other hand has not had an Initial Public Offering and is owned privately by up to 50 people.

Is that right? The use of the word public in the first two adds elements of ambiguity.

Well, actually its possible to have an unlisted public company... google it ....

Also a private company can have more than 50 shareholders, it just cant have more than 50 "non employee" shareholders. The shareholders do not have to be people by the way... they could be other companies, trusts etc.

It is also possible in Australia to have an NL company (No Liability).