Abstract
This article aims at introducing the main changes brought by the new Albanian Company Law on minority shareholders’ protection. Due to the harmonization of our legislation with the acqui, new pieces of laws were introduced in commercial law. In 2008 the new law “On entrepreneurs and commercial companies” was enacted. The latter introduced new practices and concepts, some of them not familiar to the Albanian legal system. I was motivated to write a paper on minority shareholders protection in order to emphasize the new regime and instruments of protection granted by the new laws. A matter which concerns investors and especially foreign ones is the protection of minority shareholders. This paper discusses the instruments of protection of minority shareholders bringing the novelties of the newly introduced laws because of the unclear regime under the repealed law using the analytical and comparative method. Few rights which were known by the former Albanian company law were usually compromised, but under the law in force, minorities are much more protected. Does the new law strengthen the position of such category of shareholders? What are the rights of minority shareholders conferred by the law? These and other questions will be addressed herein.
Highlights
The new law tries to introduce a new era on minority protection
This level of protection is important because as pointed out in La Porta et al (1993: 35); La Porta et al (1997); La Porta: (1998) a countrys legal mechanisms for the protection of minority shareholders have been seen by some Western economists as an important indicator of the success of these markets in attracting capital, such that countries with poor investor protections have significantly smaller debt and equity markets (Tomasic, 2007)
Does the new law strengthen the position of such category of shareholders? What are the rights of minority shareholders conferred by the law? These and other questions will be addressed
Summary
The new law tries to introduce a new era on minority protection. This level of protection is important because as pointed out in La Porta et al (1993: 35); La Porta et al (1997); La Porta: (1998) a countrys legal mechanisms for the protection of minority shareholders have been seen by some Western economists as an important indicator of the success of these markets in attracting capital, such that countries with poor investor protections have significantly smaller debt and equity markets (Tomasic, 2007). The minority shareholders are to be considered case by case by analyzing the capital structure and especially due to the fact that the ACL allows the issuance of preferential shares the holders of which are entitled to specific rights conferred by the statute or by law, but generally are excluded from the voting right.
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