PRINT THIS PAGE

Preferred stock and venture capital under the commercial companies code

Poland's commercial companies code of September 2000 made important legal amendments that help make the country more attractive to investors. Eighteen months on, Zdzislaw Wieckowski of Hogan & Hartson LLP discusses the characteristics of preferred stock as a financial instrument for venture capitalists in Poland and argues that the commercial companies code needs a further amendment to fully benefit the VC industry.

Venture capitalists use several financial instruments in the investment process such as stock, warrants, options and bonds. The selection of each individual instrument determines the economic interests of both investor and investee, usually relating to priority of return, reward of risk and exit strategy. Preferred stock is the instrument most frequently used by VCs because of its flexibility in tailoring the critical issues of the investment.

Copyright © 2002 Hogan & Hartson LLP

Click here to view full report (pdf 357kb)

You need Adobe Acrobat to read this document. If you do not have it, you can download it free from www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html

Zdzislaw Wieckowski is an attorney in the Warsaw office of Hogan & Hartson LLP.

Hogan & Hartson LLP has more than 800 attorneys serving clients in a practice that cuts across virtually all legal disciplines. In addition to its headquarters in Washington, D.C., which provides a natural base for the firm's national and international practice, the firm has European offices in Berlin, Brussels, London, Paris, Budapest, Prague, Warsaw, and Moscow, an office in Tokyo, and U.S. offices in New York, Baltimore, Northern Virginia, Miami, Los Angeles, Denver, Boulder and Colorado Springs. For more information please visit www.hhlaw.com