The Formalities for the Transfer of Quotas and Shares in Portuguese Law: from principles to practice

This article is part of the publication Questões de Direito Societário em Portugal e no Brasil, co-ordinated by Fábio Ulhoa Coelho and Maria de Fátima Ribeiro. It can be consulted in full here [in Portuguese only].
The Formalities for the Transfer of Quotas and Shares in Portuguese Law: from principles to practice

JORGE SIMÕES CORTEZ*

(With the collaboration of INÊS PINTO LEITE**)

1. The original aim of this article was to describe the essential aspects of the system for the inter vivos transfer of shareholdings in public limited companies and companies limited by shares in Portuguese law2 - which, according to a systematisation that can be considered customary among us3, would involve dealing with the form of the transfer, on the one hand, the limitations on that transfer, on the other4, and, finally, the acquisition of shareholdings as an (indirect) way of acquiring the company.

On the other hand, our aim has always been to deal with the inter vivos transfer of the aforementioned shareholdings exclusively in terms of constituted law. Considerations of a more theoretical nature would therefore be limited to those strictly necessary for a proper understanding of the rules of positive law in which this regime is enshrined.