definition shareholders
Can there be a company shareholder which is not a company owner?
<p>I would define a <em>shareholder</em> as someone who is eligible for a certain percentile amount of profit from a company, from dividends and/or from selling the company; this person may or may not be an owner of the company as described in a local (state-operated) company registrar.</p>
<p>I think and I might be wrong that in Israeli law <em>any</em> shareholder would have some amount of &quot;ownership&quot; on a company.</p>

<h2>Shareholders own the company</h2>
<p>There may be different classes of shares in a company with different rights (voting, dividends, preferential distribution etc.) but if you own a share you own (part of) the company.</p>
<p>Just as a side note, there are companies that are not limited by shares - their ownership structure is different. Similarly, there are unit trusts where ownership of a share entitles you to distributions, making you a beneficiary but the owner is someone else (usually a holding company).</p>
