Issuing New Shares and Preemptive Rights: A Comparative Analysis

Abstract

The question of whether the corporate law of Europe and America are converging is still largely unanswered. One fundamental area in which the two systems diverge concerns how they regulate the issuing of new shares, in particular preemptive rights, a problem rarely addressed by comparative corporate law scholars. This essay fills that gap by examining the major comparative differences between the approaches followed on the two sides of the Atlantic, and offers some possible explanations for this divergence.

Keywords: corporate governance, issuing shares, preemptive rights

JEL Classification: K22