Study On The Rights Protection Of China's Preferred Stockholders

China Agricultural Bank's 400 billion yuan of preferred stock was formally listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange in December 2014,marking the successful completion of the issuance and listing of the first preferred stock product in China's domestic capital market.This was the initial glance of the preferred stock in China's capital market.In the following years,China's preferred stocks experienced the initial development of the banking industry,the trials of the listed companies and the active stage in the new Third Board market.As an efficient and flexible financing tool,preferred stocks are developing rapidly in our country.The key to the long-term development of the preferred stock system lies in the protection of the rights and interests of the shareholders of the preferred stock.Otherwise,the enthusiasm of investors may be impaired and the company's financing will also be adversely affected.Compared with common shareholders,preference shareholders enjoy priority in property rights,including dividend distribution and distribution of surplus assets;in exchange,they have limited administrative rights such as the right to know about the company's major issues,voting rights and so on.In practice,due to the difference in rights between ordinary shareholders,which is a holder of corporate rights in the traditional sense,and the loss of voting rights,preferred shareholders are often in a weak position.Not only their own rights and interests are impaired,but they may even trigger morality crisis.In terms of legislation,Article 132 in newly promulgated company law stipulate: The State Council may formulate separate regulations for the issue by companies of shares of types other than those provided for in this Law.This provision provides a legal basis for the existence of preferred stocks.However,there is still a lack of regulation between the rights of different types of shareholders and protection of the rights and interests of preferred shareholders.The article is divided into three parts for discussion,with a view to clarifying personal opinions on the protection of shareholder rights of preferred stocks.The first part introduces the theoretical basis of the rights of preferred stockholders and compares them with the rights of common stockholders,highlighting the relative weak position of preferred stockholders.By analyzing the practical significance of rights protection for investors,financing companies and even China's economic market,this article conveys the expectation for the protection of our preferred stockholders' rights and interests.The second part elaborates the current status of the protection of the rights of preferred stockholders from both legislative and practical aspects, and analyzes the problems faced in the process of protecting the stockholders' rights from the defects of the preference stock's issue,transaction and withdrawal and the protection of the stockholder's specific rights and interests.The third part is the focus of this article.It starts from the perspectives of perfecting the legislative thinking and specific legal provisions for the protection of preferred shareholders' rights through the perspective of macro and micro perspectives,in order to provide feasible suggestions for the protection of China's preferred stockholders' rights from all angles and multiple perspectives.