Skip to content
GetProfitable
Search
Dictionary

Super-voting shares

Shares carrying more than one vote each, used to keep control with insiders; often they convert to ordinary shares on sale or after a sunset date.

Super-voting shares are the high-vote leg of a dual-class-shares structure. Typical terms give ten votes per share, convert automatically to one-vote common-stock when transferred to an outsider, and sometimes expire on a sunset clause five to fifteen years after the ipo.

Watch the sunset and the conversion triggers. When high-vote shares convert, the low-vote share count grows and the company may suddenly qualify for indexes it was excluded from, which is a real demand event.

Example: a founder holds 12M shares at ten votes, or 120M votes, against 80M public votes. If she sells 3M shares, those convert to one vote each. Her votes drop to 90M and the public rises to 83M.

Related: dual-class-shares, share-class, voting-rights

Educational only, not advice. Spotted an error? Post in Site Feedback.