what is aktiengesellschaft ag 
ag is an abbreviation of aktiengesellschaft which is a german term for a public limited company this type of company shares are offered to the general public and traded on a public stock exchange shareholders liability is limited to their investment the shareholders are not responsible for the company s debts and their assets are protected in case the company becomes insolvent understanding aktiengesellschaftaktiengesellschaft is a german term made up of words meaning share and corporation an ag is a business owned by shareholders which may be traded on a stock marketplace shareholders exercise power over controlling policies at regularly scheduled general meetings the managing board decides on all operational matters and the supervisory board carries them out german companies that are publicly traded are designated as such by the letters ag after the company name ag is an abbreviation for the german word aktiengesellschaft which literally translates to stock corporation or shares corporation in english ag companies trade publicly on stock exchanges with the majority of companies trading on the dax some of the largest german ag corporations include its automotive manufacturers establishing an agsetting up an ag requires five or more members an aktiengesellschaft ag is subject to the stock corporation act this act involves share capital of approximately 50 000 euros with at least one quarter paid at registration the business owner will enlist the services of an attorney or bank in preparing documentation for registration 1the aktiengesellschaft s name will come from the enterprise s purpose and contains the word aktiengesellschaft in its title the articles of association include the corporation s name registered office share capital each shareholder s contribution and details regarding the shares a court or notary will authenticate the articles of association 2the required capital is deposited into a banking account and the notarized documents and signed application are submitted to the commercial registry office the ag will become a legal entity within seven days if all materials are in order the office will issue a certificate of registration and publish news of the establishment in the official gazette 3ag oversightan ag has a managing board of one or more members appointed by and reporting to the supervisory board of three or more members an aktiengesellschaft ag with a share capital of 3 million euros or more has two or more managing board members 4 an ag employing over 500 workers will have employee representatives occupying one third of the supervisory board if the employee number exceeds 2 000 employee representatives will fill half of the board also the articles of association may limit the number of members auditors check the corporation s financial documents meeting three or more of the following conditions for two or more years in a row requires an ordinary company audit the company has more than 50 full time employees revenues exceed 2 million or the balance sheet exceeds 100 000 gmbh vs aggmbh is another common business extension primarily known for its use in germany like most countries germany has two distinct classifications for companies publicly traded and privately held while ag refers to public companies the acronym gmbh is used to designate certain private entities and is written after a company s name the letters stand for gesellschaft mit beschr nkter haftung which translated literally means a company with limited liability 5