Public company

1. Public companies may - subject to complying with certain conditions - be allowed to offer their shares for sale to the public. To protect the public, public companies are therefore subject to greater regulation and requirements to report fuller financial information within shorter timeframes, compared with private companies.

2. The term 'public company' is also used in a looser sense to refer to a company whose shares are already listed on an exchange and held by members of the public. More strictly however, such a company is a listed company.

See also

• Listed company
• Private company