The author analyzes legislative norms that determine the shareholder right to participate in the distribution of net profit and receive a share of net profit or dividends. The main attention is paid to the implementation of this right in joint-stock companies 50 or more percent of the shares (shares) of which are directly or indirectly owned by the state (joint-stock companies with a state share). In such joint-stock companies, shareholders have the legally guaranteed right to receive a share of the distributed net profit in proportion to their share in the authorized capital.

Further study of the corporate right of shareholders to participate in the distribution of net profit and receive the distributed portion of net profit/dividends is proposed.

The right to receive a part of the net profit and dividends are not identical in terms of legal grounds, procedure, method and terms of implementation. The legal basis for the ordinary shares dividends payment is the general meeting decision. It determines the amount of net profit that is decided to be paid as dividends, the procedure and terms of the payment. The legal basis for the net profit part payment is the norm of the State budget Law and the executive body decision; the condition is the absence of the dividends payment general meeting decision by May, 1 of the year following the reporting year.

The state’s dividend policy limits the principle of the general meeting supremacy and its exclusive competence in the issue of the net profit distributing in JSCs with state shares. The author analyzes the law enforcement practice in corporate disputes on the recovery of the part of the net profit and dividends from JSC “UKRNAFTA”, decisions of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine and legal conclusions of the Supreme Court on the resolution of corporate disputes on the recovery of the part of the net profit and dividends. The article substantiates the failure to comply with the principles of equality, proportionality and non-discrimination in JSCs with state shares in terms and methods of the net profit payments to the state and minority shareholders.

Bibliography

Authored books

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