A study of the corporate governance and the protection of minority shareholders in closely-held corporations

我國現今之公司制度分為無限公司、兩合公司、有限公司及股份有限公司四種類型，其中又以有限公司及股份有限公司為大宗。而依我國目前產業結構之現狀，除少數為大型公司外，相當於97％以上之企業實為中小企業，即較小型、具有閉鎖性之公司。閉鎖性公司相較於公開性公司而言，不僅所採用之公司形式不同，更重要的是閉鎖性公司其股東人數較少、股東相互間具有高度之信賴關係、重視股東之個人特質、董事通常係由多數股東中選任及企業所有與經營合一之組織特性，與公開性公司截然不同。 2015年我國立法院通過公司法部分條文修正新增閉鎖性公司專章，施行至今已歷一年有餘，已有數百家之閉鎖性公司設立，其發展成效不凡，企業界對於此種在組織與資金籌措上具有高度彈性的公司類型，亦多給予高度評價。然閉鎖性公司因其性質，就閉鎖性公司之少數股東而言，一方面由於無次級流通市場存在，其股份轉讓有現實上之困難，當發生多數股東壓迫少數股東的不公平現象或是因股東不合而產生股東僵局無法打破等情形，使少數股東欲退出公司時，無法輕易收回投資；另一方面，閉鎖性公司之多數股東，通常為董事或控制權股東，可透過多數決原理以合法的程序輕易地剝奪持股數較少之少數股東之權益。因此，法律對於閉鎖性公 司少數股東之保障機制更顯重要。然而，依我國現行閉鎖性公司法制對於少數股東之保障竟完全未為規範，顯對少數股東之權益保障有欠周全，實有深入探討之必要性。 除了探討閉鎖性公司法制之基本概念之外，本文將全面性的檢討我國現行閉鎖性公司制度對於少數股東權益保障之缺失，整理並分析美國、英國及日本等國之相關立法例及司法實務見解，作為我國建構及推動閉鎖性公司之少數股東保障制度之參考。同時，探討閉鎖性公司所面臨的公司治理議題，嘗試建構一套適合我國中小型企業的公司治理守則，透過公司治理守則的建立與宣導，配合適當的事後法律救濟制度，強化閉鎖性公司少數股東之保障。According to Taiwan Company Act, companies are of four classes, which are unlimited company, limited company, unlimited company with limited liability shareholders, and company limited by shares. Among these four classes, limited company and company limited by shares are the major cases in the court. Besides a few large firms, depends on our status quo, there are over 97% of the corporations are closely-held corporations. Compared to public corporations, not only do closely-held take different company forms, more importantly, closely-held corporations also have less shareholders, higher fiduciary relationship among shareholders, more focused on shareholders’ characteristics, the board is usually elected from majority shareholders, and their power of operation and ownership are combined. All of these features of closely-held corporation are entirely different from public corporations. In 2015, Legislative Yuan approved the Amendment of Company Act, adding closely-held corporations’ specialized chapters, which has been enforcing more than a year. Hundreds of the closely-held corporations have incorporated since that with remarkable growth, are highly appraised by the business world on their highly flexible organization and financing. However, under these closely-held corporations’ characteristics, shareholders are unable to transfer their shares arbitrarily. When there is oppression by majority shareholders or disagreements which causes deadlock, minority shareholders cannot realize their investments through transferring of shares. In the other hand, majority shareholders, who usually serve as directors, can legally deprive minority shareholders of their rights. Consequently, the protection of minority shareholders is more important, especially in closely-held corporations. However, there lacks a clear set of rules in protecting minority shareholders in Taiwan. In this research study not only the basic concept of closely-held corporations, through cases and regulations of U.S., U.K, Japan to review current legal protection available to minority shareholders in closely-held corporation, as a reference of construct and promote the protection of minority shareholders in closely-held corporations in Taiwan. Besides, this study is intended to enhance the protection of minority shareholders in closely-held corporations through to establish the principles of corporate governance and recommending appropriate effective post legal remedies for small-and-medium size firms in Taiwan