non-voting shares


Nonvoting Stock

Stock in a publicly-traded company that does not give the holder the right to vote at the company's annual meeting. Nonvoting stock usually has other rights associated with it to compensate for the lack of ability to vote. For example, most preferred stock is nonvoting, but preferred stock has a guaranteed dividend, while most voting stock does not.

non-voting shares

or

‘A’ shares

ORDINARY SHARES which do not have any voting rights at a company's ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING. Non-voting shares often arose because company founders or directors sought to raise new share capital without diluting their control, by issuing large numbers of nonvoting shares but retaining control of the original voting shares. Holders of voting shares have an advantage in company takeovers or disputes about company policy and so may have a higher market value than non-voting shares. Most STOCK MARKETS discourage companies from issuing new non-voting shares.