To protect the pursuits of the minority shareholders, the regulators and exchanges ask a public company to observe certain provisions and requirements of inner approval and statistics disclosure at the guarantee. The “undisclosed assure” used in exercise refers back to the assure this is made without following the internal approval and public disclosure methods as furnished for and required. A usually visible “undisclosed assure” is the case in which the actual controllers or majority shareholders of a public business enterprise, with the aid of taking benefit of their to manipulate over the business enterprise, difficulty assure files with the stamp of the company for the debts of their very own or any affiliated celebration. The public corporation is probably referred to as to carry out the assure responsibility whilst the debtor is insolvent. As a result, the assets of the general public shareholders are occupied, and the interests of the employer and the minority shareholders are jeopardized.
The Company Law has laid down provisions as to the manner with the aid of which a assure is made in Article sixteen, as follows:
(1) in which the organization invests in other organizations or makes a guarantee to others, the matter will be determined via the decision of the board of directors, the shareholders, or the shareholders’ assembly as according to the articles of association; where the articles of association have made limits to the whole amount of the investments or the guarantees, or the amount of single investment or guarantee, the limits shall not be breached;
(2) where the business enterprise makes a guarantee for the shareholders of the real controllers of the organization, the problem will be decided via the decision of the shareholders or the shareholders’ assembly;
(three) the shareholders furnished for within the previous item, or the shareholders dominated using the real controllers provided for inside the preceding item, shall now not take part inside the resolution, and the matter will bypass by way of the general public votes of the final shareholders with voting rights.
The courts affirmed the criminal effect and validity of the undisclosed assure made using the public corporations in most of the cases inside the past:
Case 1: The undisclosed guarantee isn’t always nullified because of a violation of mandatory provisions. In 2014, in the debt settlement dispute between the Dayuandong Port branch of China Merchants Bank, Dalian Zhenbang Fluoro Coatings, and Dalian Zhenbang Group, the very best courtroom affirmed that the undisclosed assure made by the public organization Zhenbang is powerful and legitimate. The dispute focuses on whether or not the guarantee, made without the consent of the shareholders’ assembly, needs to be nullified due to violating Article 16.2 of the Company Law. The perfect courtroom held the view that the regulation aims to constrain the employer’s activities and prevent the real controllers or senior management of the corporation from acting in prejudice of the pastimes of the organization, minority shareholders, or other lenders. Therefore, the essence of the law is an internal controlling process, which can’t be used to bind the counterparty of the transaction.
