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Société par Actions Simplifiée Unipersonnelle

English translation: simplified limited company with a sole shareholder

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
French term or phrase:Société par Actions Simplifiée Unipersonnelle
English translation:simplified limited company with a sole shareholder
Entered by: Miranda Joubioux (X)

15:48 Feb 22, 2008
French to English translations [PRO]
Bus/Financial - Business/Commerce (general)
French term or phrase: Société par Actions Simplifiée Unipersonnelle
Part of a business contract referring to the parties.

I know that Société par Actions Simplifiée has already come up, but what is this?
How can a joint-stock company or private limited share company be a one-man company or am I missing something?
Miranda Joubioux (X)
Local time: 11:02
simplified corporation with a sole shareholder
Explanation:
There is no functional equivalent. A sole proprietorship is something completely different (it lacks limited liability). Not any kind of 'joint stock company' either, which is an antiquated term.
Selected response from:

Attorney DC Bar
Local time: 11:02
Grading comment
Thank you everyone for all your help. I'm not very happy with the use of corporation in British English, so I've opted for limited company. Naturally, I've kept the French and put this as an explanation in brackets.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
4 +5simplified corporation with a sole shareholder
Attorney DC Bar
3 +3SASU (single-person simplified company with shares)
rkillings
3 +2info
Julie Barber
2 -1one man company
cjohnstone


Discussion entries: 6





  

Answers


4 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 2/5Answerer confidence 2/5 peer agreement (net): -1
one man company


Explanation:
an idea

cjohnstone
France
Local time: 11:02
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: Native in FrenchFrench, Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 63

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
disagree  AllegroTrans: not a legal expression and much too casual in formal documents: and what if the company is run by a woman?
8 hrs
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1 hr   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +5
simplified corporation with a sole shareholder


Explanation:
There is no functional equivalent. A sole proprietorship is something completely different (it lacks limited liability). Not any kind of 'joint stock company' either, which is an antiquated term.

Attorney DC Bar
Local time: 11:02
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 104
Grading comment
Thank you everyone for all your help. I'm not very happy with the use of corporation in British English, so I've opted for limited company. Naturally, I've kept the French and put this as an explanation in brackets.

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Julie Barber: Agree that there isn't a direct equivalent, so there are a variety of options. @ Allegrotrans - a sole shareholder would be the sole owner!
5 mins
  -> ok
agree  cmwilliams (X)
43 mins
  -> thanks
agree  Assimina Vavoula
1 hr
  -> thanks
agree  alizestarfir (X)
5 hrs
  -> thanks
neutral  AllegroTrans: isn't it "single directorship/ownership" as well as "sole shareholder"?
6 hrs
  -> Yes, now the name is really getting unwieldy. Plus, the defining characteristic (unipersonnelle) seems to be that there is only one shareholder. See the wikepedia definition in juliebarba's answer below.
agree  Dilshod Madolimov
1 day 31 mins
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1 hr   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 peer agreement (net): +2
info


Explanation:
Société par actions simplifiée (S.A.S.) is a type of business organization under French law. It is most similar to a joint stock company or limited company in British law, or a limited liability company under United States law. It is a type of simplified corporation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Société_par_actions_simplifiée

The above says that it is *similar* to those types of companies.

La Société par Actions Simplifiée Unipersonnelle[1], ou SASU, est l'entreprise d'une personne physique ou morale qui crée une Société par Actions Simplifiée (SAS) dont elle sera l'unique actionnaire.
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Société_par_actions_simplifiée_...

There are a variety of options on the net:

A "Société par actions simplifiée univpersonnelle" (SASU) : Company Limited by shares under sole ownership
http://www.apce.com/pid374/legal-structure.html







Julie Barber
United Kingdom
Local time: 10:02
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 166

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Iga Kulig
1 day 22 hrs
agree  Peter Manda
1421 days
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10 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 peer agreement (net): +3
SASU (single-person simplified company with shares)


Explanation:
Corporate structure unique to France (so far), so don't omit the term or identifying abbreviation in the source language.

Although "simplified joint-stock company" for SAS gets the most hits on Google, this is not a good translation into contemporary English. Better to build on the model of "limited company with shares". Joint-stock is not so much an antiquated term as a historical one; and worse, where it still exists on the statute books, it may mean an UNlimited liability company. As for "corporation", no need to prefer it over "company". What is called corporate law in the US is known as company law all over Europe.

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Note added at 10 hrs (2008-02-23 02:15:44 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

I modestly claim only confidence level 3. Collectively, we translators decide what will eventually become the received English term for this thing.:-)

rkillings
United States
Local time: 02:02
Works in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 278

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Attorney DC Bar: Agree on all points, with the caveat that if you want a more British term, you might want to leave in 'limited' since 'company' in Britain doesn't necessarily mean 'limited company.
1 hr
  -> Nor does 'société par actions' imply limited liability. Cela va sans dire. Zeitgeist and all that.
agree  Jack Dunwell: I think this is very constructive
3 hrs
  -> Why, thank you!
agree  AllegroTrans: but only as an explanation - original FR term must remain in place IMO
14 hrs
  -> SASU takes care of that. Anyone can look it up. :-)
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